The Black Sword
by Ilikemutemath
Summary: Rachel's life starts getting confusing when she realizes that almost everyone around her knows a secret, but no one will tell her what it is. Drama, tons of lies, sword fighting, royalty, hand to hand combat, war, and yeah, a whole bunch of romance.
1. The Almost Kiss

**I hope you enjoy!**

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><p>I don't know why it was me that had to die today and not someone, anyone else. Maybe it was randomly pulled out of a hat or maybe I was someone specific chosen by God, maybe It was fate or destiny like so many believe or maybe it was just my time to die. In the end I guess I'm okay with it because in the end the world doesn't matter anymore and I understand how wasted my life was.<p>

I'm Rachel Elizabeth Garrett, My mother was named Elizabeth and my grandmother was named Rachel and my last name comes from my closest family Mathew Garrett he isn't really blood kin but I love him like he is.

Mathew was my fathers best friend as they grew up and he has been with me since I was born- actually he has been a father to me since my real one died ten years ago and my mother died in the childbirth of my baby brother when I was three, and my brother died with her. And so Mathew has been my only family for as long as I can clearly remember.

I was practicing my swordsmanship with Mathew like any other day except today I was stronger which was very unusual considering I'm a short seventeen year old girl and Mathew is a thirty-nine year old man that has a build like that of a massive bear. So when I got the upper hand through strength instead of the usual way (by speed, I'm always faster than him) of course I was triumphant but I was even more worried.

"Are you okay?" I had to ask.

"I'm just tired I guess." he answered nonchalantly. He seemed distracted.

"Ok, umm I'm going to go see if Nick wants to spar for a little while."

Nick is the son of my mother's dearest friend Mrs. Jackson. And Nicolas Jackson is like a brother to me because we grew up together and both of our fathers died in the same war when Nick was nine years old and I was seven. After that Nick had comforted me along with Mathew.

"That's fine just don't tire yourself out we are going to Mrs. Rettergof's masquerade ball tonight so be home in time to clean up and get ready," "Why do I have to g-" I started to protest but was cut off. "the prince and princesses are going to be there so don't start your whining."

"Yes, sir. But what am I going to wear? I don't have any dress that would be suitable for a Mrs. Rettergof ball!" I said a bit sarcastically even though it was true.

Mathew rolled his eyes "Why don't you wear what you are wearing now? It's not like any one will know who you are if you wear a mask. And it is a masquerade ball."

"Mathew you are a genius! But do you think it would be alright? I mean don't you think mother would want me to wear a dress?"

"My dear, you can wear whatever you would like and if you think your mother would want you to wear a dress then I think you should. But if you are not certain then ask Mrs. Jackson she will know what to do."

I groaned "But she will want to make me look like a girl!" Mrs. Jackson is the closest thing to a mother that I have ever had, but I didn't trust her judgment on clothes. Because she likes to wear pretty things and I like to just 'look' at pretty things NOT wear them.

"That is because you are a girl if you haven't noticed. And pretty soon you are going to want to get married and your husband is going to want to be the one that is the hero, and the knight in shining armor. Not you." He gently reprimanded.

I sighed "Okay I will ask Mrs. Jackson but I will not promise that I will not whine my feet hurting from the dreadful shoes she is going to put me in." I said. "I will just have to endure it." He replied teasingly

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><p>"Dear God Please save me from this wretched fate!" I prayed aloud, even though I knew my captors would hear me.<p>

One of my captors tugged violently at my hair and laughed "Elizabeth It is not that bad, any way I'm just getting started. I still have to decide exactly how your hair is going to be, pick out a dress for you to wear, decide on a mask for you, pick out which shoes you will wear, and do your makeup!" Said Mrs. Jackson.

I had three of them, captors I mean. One was Mathew he was the one that had dragged me here, and then there was Nick he had helped hold me down until his mother came home from some errands (just because he somehow in his twisted ways enjoyed that I was being tortured.) And then came the worst of all. My Torturer Mrs. Jackson. She had the sweetest face I had ever seen, but looks can be deceiving.

"Just getting started? I have been sitting here for an hour and I am getting a headache from you yanking on my hair!" I heard a snicker from the direction of the door, and I tried to turn my head to glare at Nick but was stopped by Mrs. Jackson holding onto my hair.

"Hold still sweetheart! Nicholas can you please go entertain yourself elsewhere? You are distracting Rachel and I don't want to have to start all over again." She said sweetly yet firmly.

"Yes,'m. See you at the ball tonight Rach." He ducked as a high heeled shoe went flying over his head.

"Ok now that he's gone how are you doing?" Asked Mrs. Jackson.

"I'm ok I guess" Trying not to let my real feelings through.

"come now what's on your mind? I know that face and it doesn't mean that every thing is fine and dandy."

"It's just I'm having terrible nightmares lately. The first one I had Mathew was in the woods and I was by the house watching him and I saw these red eyes following him and I heard him scream but I just stood there. And a couple of nights ago I dreamt Nick went to war and somehow I was there too but I couldn't do any thing to stop the sword from…" I stopped to calm my breathing and my nerves I was getting worked up for nothing.

"Those were the two that reoccur the most of but I have had others and they are all where someone close to me has died or gotten hurt and I could not do anything."

"You are missing your parents. And you are afraid that the same thing will happen to us." Replied Mrs. Jackson sadly stroking my dark brown hair.

"You have you're mother's eyes you know. That beautiful dark brown color, I was always envious of her eyes. And you have your father's curly hair I hadn't noticed before because you always have it in that bun" She said as she ran her fingers though my hair. "I think I am going to leave it down tonight." She decided with a small smile. "You know I always wanted a girl to dress up but I guess it just wasn't in God's plans for me. Oh! I now see that that isn't true! I have you now. Even if you don't enjoy it as much as I do." she said with a smile.

I decided to stop my whining after that. " Thank you, Mrs. Jackson for everything."

"It's my pleasure sweetheart. Okay lets go pick out that dress!"

"Okay." For some reason I was getting excited.

"I have a beautiful green silk dress from a few years ago I think it is your size and It has more lace and beads than you have ever worn but I know you will love it once you are in it!" She said in her excited voice.

After three hours and lots of tugging and pulling, I finally got to look in the mirror and surprisingly I looked like someone else. But it is definitely not me in the mirror. I gave Mrs. Jackson a hug and she said in a soft voice, "now that wasn't so bad was it?"

"No. It was kind of fun." I said with a sheepish smile, I felt embarrassed for acting the way I did earlier.

Hopefully all my "captors" will forgive me.

There was a knock on the bedroom door then. "Come in" Called Mrs. Jackson. And Mathew came in wearing a very handsome suit.

"Is my lady ready?" He asked, looking me over with a satisfied smile.

"Yes." I sighed. For a reason I was not sure of, I was getting nervous. And somehow Mrs. Jackson knew it

"I have one more thing." she said as she walked towards me with a green silk mask. As she was putting it on she whispered in my ear. "Don't be nervous sweetheart no one will know who you are, okay? Just be yourself." And with that Mathew and I left for the ball.

Once we got there everything started to blur. And somehow I ended up at a table with five cute little children with the cutest little masks. "Are you a pwincess?" one of the littlest girls were asking me with wide sincere eyes.

I laughed a little "Oh, no I am not." I decided to humor her "Are you? because you look to beautiful to not be one." The little girl giggled and shook her head. "No. Thank you! You are bootiful too!"

"Why thank you. I tell you what, how about we pretend to be princesses?"

"Ok! but we need a pwince first." She said with a delightful toothless smile.

I was about to respond when a familiar voice interrupted me. "Hello lady's. May I join you?" It was Nick's voice I would know it anywhere. I looked up to see a tall man in a prince's outfit. I couldn't believe it, he had gotten their just in time and wearing the perfect clothes for the job. And I still had not gotten him back for his involvement as one of my captors this afternoon.

"Of course you may Prince Charming! We were just looking for you!" I said with a glint in my eyes.

"Are you a twue pwince?" She asked. I gave him a pointed look and nodded my head while she was looking at him and not me.

"Yes, are you true princesses?" He asked in a deeper voice than usual.

"Yes!" I answered before she could, but when she looked at me with a questioning look I winked at her.

and she giggled again.

"May I take the older princess out for a breath of fresh air?" He asked as he nodded towards the door.

"I would find that charming sir prince. Have fun dear little princess!"

Once we were outside he took me over to the fountain and we watched the stars reflection on the water until I realized that he was not watching the stars but he was looking at me instead. And when I looked up and met his gaze he said in a husky voice, "You look beautiful tonight"

I blushed and I did not know why. but his words meant a lot to me and I hadn't realized that he was very handsome, I hadn't realized how his neatly messy hair was very attracting, or how his dark eyes are mesmerizing. And another thing I hadn't realized was how we were leaning closer and closer and when our lips were about to touch I heard Mathew calling me name breaking us from our sweet reverie.

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><p><strong>AN**

**TaDa! How is it so far? Good? Bad? Ugly? Beautiful? Please Review and tell me what you think!**

**Constructive criticism is welcomed! As are suggestions!**

**Also I'm not really sure where this story is taking place in the imaginary world**

**but if someone has lots of Imaginary city names I'd appreciate it if you'd share**

**them with me... Please!**

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**And you won't get to read the rest of the story. Because I'd be dead. XD**


	2. The Redmonds

**First and foremost, giant thanks to Pokemonchen for being the first to review I agree with you and I'm going to slow it down, I just had to set the mood. **

"**Please Review!" Says Rachel, in a funny voice. **

**Wait that's my line! Lol, I'm such a cheese ball.**

Flashback:_ And another thing I hadn't realized was how we were leaning closer and closer and when our lips were about to touch I heard Mathew calling our names and breaking us from our sweet reverie._

"We better go inside." He whispered.

"Yeah, I guess." I whispered back I didn't know why we were whispering.

As we started walking back he gave me a playful bump to break the solemn mood. I gave him a push, knocking him on his backside, and started running, knowing that he would be coming after me.

I ran through the garden, hoping to find Mathew before Nick could catch me. I felt an arm around my waist pulling me to a halt. "crap." I thought.

Nick picked me up and flung me over his shoulder. "Where are we going?" I asked as politely as I could.

"I believe Mathew was looking for you." He said being just as polite as me.

I propped my head up with my elbows on his back and started to sing 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider', I knew he was not going to let me down until he was ready so there was no reason to fight. By the time the "spider climbed up the spout again" Nick was singing with me. And this was how Mathew found us, and he wasn't surprised in the least.

"Here you go your highness, I brought back your princess" Nick said setting me down and standing like a soldier at attention.

"She did. She has a temper on her you know. She shoved me on the ground and then she started slapping and clawing at my face, It was quite horrifying." He said with a comical look on his face.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to have you over for super for your bravery." He replied.

"Oh but that's not all. After she beat me up she ran off and I had to go after her. Luckily my legs are longer than hers, and I caught up with her quickly." If this weren't so funny I'd be annoyed.

"For that you get knighthood!" He said with a smile.

But then he remembered something. "Rachel my dear there is someone I'd like you to meet, Mrs. Redmond is an old and dear friend of mine," Mathew said happily.

"Wait did you say Redmond?" asked Nick.

"Yes. I haven't seen her for years, she has a daughter and a son. The boy is your age but her daughter is a couple years older than you. I have a favor I must ask of you Rachel, I'd like you to make them comfortable during their stay here." He said as he walked me inside.

I turned to say something to Nick but when I saw him he was not following us but he was standing where we had left him, and he had an angry look on his face. This puzzled me, I had rarely ever seen him angry and I had no idea why he was now. Could it have been my fault that he had that look on his face? This idea disturbed me. But I could not ask him about it because Mathew and I were already engulfed by the crowd inside.

We stopped in front of a lovely woman with a girl and a boy on ether side of her.

"Celia this is, Rachel Garrett the one I've told you about. Rachel this is Celia Redmond, her daughter Beatrice and Her son Jonathan."

"How do you do" and "Charmed I'm sure" Came from Mrs. Redmond and Beatrice with indifferent attitudes.

But from her handsome son came a pleasant smile and, "It's a honor to meet you, Miss Garrett." And he said it politely.

I smiled back and said "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances, If either of you wish to have company during your stay, then I would be happy to do something with you, or if you wish for a different character than I have then I would be happy to find a worthy friend for you" I said that last part with a hope that they did not like me. Because I did not really like them so far.

"I'm sure you would be worthy of anyone's attention." Replied Jonathan with an open gaze. Which earned a blush from me and a roll of the eyes from "Queen" Beatrice.

And with that I made my excuses and went in search of Nick, because he was always able to calm my nerves. And right now they needed a lot of calming. But after an extensive search I finally decided that he had gone home.

I decided that I wanted to go home too. I went back to Mathew and found him still with the Redmond girls Jonathan was nowhere to be seen, so I told Mathew that I was going to walk home and that I would see him tomorrow morning because I would probably not still be awake when he got home.

I was looking forward to the peaceful walk home because I needed to think about all that happened tonight.

It was all clouding my brain and making me dizzy, I was so sleepy. But I was also feeling a little nauseous, oh no, not a little nauseous a lot and it was getting worse. "Uh oh" I stopped walking, leaned over in a bush and lost my dinner. Soon I was feeling better but my strength was drained and my face was hot so I leaned against the brick building beside me and put my face on the cool wall.

I heard someone coming up behind me and I pressed against the wall hoping that they would just pass they didn't and I heard the last voice in the world that I wanted to hear right now. Nick. "Hey I was looking for you Mathew said you had left so I- Whoa, are you ok? Rachel you're really pale!"

_Great! And now I'm even more dizzy_. I thought. _and his face is blurring, is the ground supposed to do that?_

And that is when I blacked out.

I opened my eyes to the evil sun shining straight in them which was not helping my throbbing headache, so I slammed them shut again. _Hmm that feels nice. _Someone was putting a wet cloth on my forehead I opened my eyes a crack to see who it was, and guess who I saw.

Yup. Nick, "Good morning! How are you feeling?" Is that question really necessary?

"Fine." I said sarcastically

"Liar." He said frowning.

"Am I in your room?" I asked changing the subject.

"Uh yeah, my house was closer last night and my mom was not at your house to take care of you, so I brought you here." He said with a shrug.

"Wait, you carried me all the way here?"

He sat down beside me on the bed. "Yeah, I couldn't just leave you there." He said with another shrug.

"Thank you." I said in a whisper, as I laid my head on his shoulder.

He smiled "What would you do without me?"

"I don't know." _I don't ever want to think about that. _That's about the time I started drifting between dreamland and the real world. But before I could get to sleep he asked me another question "Rachel?

Do you like Jonathan Redmond? I saw you talking to him and it seemed like you two had a… thing for each other." I thought I heard worry in his tone but decided it was just the sleep.

"Umm, He seems nice but he's not really my type, If that's what you mean." I mumbled out through the fog of sleep. If I had had my eyes open I would have seen the almost joyous smile on his face.

**Yay! I'm not sure how it turned out because I'm prejudice, so please review and tell me. Also If you see any way for me to upgrade from a writer to a good writer please tell me if you see any misspelling please tell me if you have an idea for the direction of the story, or if you just like the story please tell me! The point is, REVIEW! Or story alert or fav. I hope you liked this chapter! **


	3. The Wolves

It was pitch black I couldn't see my hand in front of my face but I could see the moon through some trees over head, it was nighttime. I couldn't remember how I got here, I knew that I was looking for someone, but I couldn't remember who.

I heard a twig snap, making me jump, there was something only a few feet in front of me. Straining my eyes I tried to see what it was, I finally saw the faint outline of some kind of huge animal and it was coming closer to me. Then I heard It's growl.

I started to turn so I could run away, but I tripped on a root, falling on the ground with a hard thud.

My heart was beating hard in my chest. I scrambled to get up, when I finally got to my feet, my dress got caught on the same root. I tugged it free.

I started to run, I ran harder than I had ever run but it did not feel fast enough. I heard another terrifying hungry growl, and I could hear paws thudding on the ground right behind me. I knew I was going to die but I kept running, tripping here and there but I was determined not to get caught even if I had to fight it off with my bare hands.

Soon the sun started to come up. I was tired and I hoped that the thing behind me was tired too. But my hopes died when I heard more paws joining the first. "God- please! - help!" I cried between breaths.

I could clearly see now because the sun had come up, I looked around we were in a forest, that explained the stupid roots. I was to afraid to look at my pursuers, so I looked straight ahead searching for safety.

That's when I saw him, a man on a horse and he was riding quickly towards me I waved my arms "help!"

As he got closer I realized who was on the horse. (you'll never guess.) Nick.

He rode past me, sword in hand, and dismounted when he got to the animals. Then he started to fight the giant wolves that were double the sizeof a normal wolf.

I had stopped running and was watching in horror as Nick got hurt numerous times, from ether a sharp claw or a bite. I was helpless.

The bigger one of the wolves took a hard swipe at Nick. I heard a crack as he hit a tree. I realized with a shock that the tree that had broken but the crack had come from Nick. The wolves took one look at me, just standing there then they turned and ran off in the other direction. It had just been a game to them, like cat and mouse.

I ran over to Nick. Please let him be ok please let him be ok! thatwas all I could say, all I could think, and all that I could pray.

"Nick! Please get up Nick! Nick!" I cried my voice was thick with tears.

That was when I woke up.

(A/N end of dream : )

"Hmm, It's about time you were awake. Oh, are you okay dear?" I heard a familiar voice say.

"Mrs. Jackson? What- what happened?" I asked.

"You were having a nightmare. And judging by the tears on your cheeks, it was a pretty sad one. " She

said gently.

"Oh! Nick-" But I couldn't finish my sentence because sobs shook my shoulders violently.

"Hey hey sweetheart, Nick is fine! He's sleeping in the other room." She said with that motherly tone.

I shoved the covers off of me, I had to make sure. But when my feet hit the ground I felt a wave of dizziness overtake me, forcing me to sit back down. Maybe Nick can wait for a few minutes.

"Easy now. You had a very high temperature last night and you need your rest. As does Nicholas, he was the one that sat up with you the last two nights trying to get your fever down. He did a fine job too, just look at yourself. Your color is coming back, you are finally awake thank the good Lord for that. You were out three days you know." She said with a relieved sigh.

"That was sweet of Nick to do that. And wow, I was sleeping for three days? Wait what about Matthew? Is he okay? He didn't get the sickness did he?" I asked worry coloring my voice.

"He's fine. Just worried about you." She answered smiling. "And speaking of, there are certain people that would have my head if they knew I had been sitting here talking to you and not telling them that you are awake." I smiled at that. "Be right back sweetheart." And she left the room.

As I waited I studied the floral pattern on the quilt that was covering me, trying to think of any thing other than that dream.

The door opened and Nick came in making my shoulders relax I hadn't realized how tense I had let them get. "He does look tired" I thought a little guiltily.

"Hey stranger. I thought I'd never see those eyes again." he said in a teasing tone as he came to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Hi." I said quietly, it was hard to look at him because I was still trying not to think about the dream.

His tone turned serious when he asked this next question. "Have you been crying?"

I looked down at my hands. "No."

I lied. Please don't go in that direction, anywhere but there!

He lifted my chin so that I was looking at him. Then he smiled at me and said "You're a terrible liar."

but somehow it made me want to cry even more even though he was trying to make me laugh.

I wanted to tell him about the dream, but it still hurt. Every time I thought about it, it was like a stab in the heart, it was like I lost my best friend over and over again. But maybe I just need to tell him and I will feel better, ok you can do this. "Eyes please don't leak, voice please be strong, and brain could you possibly make sense for a few minutes?" "Okay, I had a nightmare." I said, looking in his eyes. "and I was chased by these two huge wolves and you came to save me and you were fighting them and one hit you against a tree and I ran to you and you were dead."

"Oh great job brain that was terrific, and eyes good job at tearing up just when I needed you not to, and voice! Stupid voice you were talking to fast saying "and" to many times and also you were quivering the whole time!" As I was mentally scolding myself I didn't notice how intently Nick was watching me.

The floodgates in my eyes were still holding back but I knew they would not for very long. "It was just really scary when I thought I had lost you forever." And here it comes yup now they weren't holding back anything.

Nick pulled me into a hug. "How about some peanutbutter and bananas?" his voice was thick as he said this and I realized he was crying too. But the reason he said this was because when we were younger, peanut butter and bananas was what we ate together when it one of us scraped a knee or fell out of a tree. It was our comfort food.

I laughed and then said "That sounds nice."

I wasn't so dizzy this time around when I tried to get up, but I still needed the support of Nick. We went into the kitchen and I sat at the counter while he got the jar and the fruit, just like we use to do.

"How long has it been since we did this last?" I called to him.

"Umm, I think it was the first time you went up against me with a sword." he chuckled

And I laughed with him. "That was a funny day."

"For you." He said dryly. As came out of the pantry with his findings. I laughed at the look on his face, It matched his dry voice.

"Nicholas Jackson! You are not still sore about that are you?" I said teasing him.

"I really thought I would win! I mean It's not every day that your best friend (that's a girl) challenges you to a duel. And on top of that, I had never, ever seen you look at a sword much less hold one! So I really really thought it would be a piece of cake."

"But It wasn't. And I won."

"Yeah. Hey, do you even still remember the very very first time we did this? How did it get started anyway? I can't remember." I said with a smile.

"Yes you do. It was exactly a year after our fathers died." He reminded gently.

"Oh." I sighed, I had successfully ruined another happy moment.

"Do you remember that one time when we were climbing an apple tree, racing to get the last apple?"

I laughed "Yeah and I won?"

"I have a confession… I let you win." He said, very seriously, like he was telling his darkest secret.

"I have a confession too." I looked around making sure none were listening then I whispered, "I know."

His jaw dropped open "You know? What do you mean you know?"

"You were a faster climber than me but somehow, you slowed down? I don't think so."

It went on for a while like this until Mathew came to take me home.

"Rachel, child if you scare me like that again your going to get skinned alive!" Matthew said when he saw me.

"Hello Matthew, how are you?" I asked him.

He took me home and I went right to sleep. When I woke up the next morning Matthew said that he had some work to do so I had the day free to do whatever I wanted.

I decided to go see a young couple that I knew had just had a baby boy. But I needed to bake some things first so I could take something with me when I went.

I definitely wasn't as good a baker as I was a swordswoman but I had learned from Mrs. Jackson and she was the best of the best so I know a few things.

By the time I finished It was after lunchtime. So I set off to go see that baby.

I was walking with my head down because the wind was threatening to blow me away. And guess what? SMACK! Right into someone's back. "I- I'm s- sorry." It was getting cold and my teeth were chattering

"It's quite alright! In fact it was my pleasure, for such face like yours everything is a pleasure!" I recognized Jonathan Redmond's voice. "Oh joy!" I thought sarcastically.

I plastered on a smile. "Oh, hello!" I didn't know why I was even still talking to him.

"I was just waiting on my sister." he said as he motioned to the building behind him.

He stepped closer, to me a little to close but it would have been rude to back away now. He started to whisper something about dining at the inn with him.

I took a step away and smiled trying hard to be polite. "Thank you Mr. Redmond but I have… umm things to do… like ummm" Uh oh, brain please think!

"See you have time to dine with me, how about at six tonight? Very good, see you then!" and he walked away before I could abject or even answer to his request.

I mocked him. "Dine with me tonight" I smiled at myself after I said that because I sounded exactly like him. With his annoying nasal voice.

I headed on with a smile on my face. Even if I was extremely annoyed.

If I had looked inside the shop window that we had been standing in front of I would have seen the dismayed look on one special somebody's face that had misunderstood the smile that was on my face, after talking to that flirt of a man.

When I reached the house I was looking for I went up the pathway that led to the house and knocked

A beautiful blond girl opened the door. "Hello I'm Rachel Garrett, I heard you had a baby?

"Yes, It's nice to meet you Rachel! My name is Jessica Hartley, and my sons name Is Caleb."

"It's nice to meet you too. I hope we become good friends in the future! Hear I brought some baking and grape jelly."

"Oh thank you! I haven't had much time to bake since Caleb was born- Oh! Please come in!" she said a bit flustered.

"thank you. You have a nice home." I said.

"Would you like to hold him? He should be happy for a while more. You came at just the right time."

"Oh yes please!" As I was holding this baby I realized how much I wanted my own, I also realized that me and Jessica are the same age so this could be me.

After a little bit the baby's daddy came home. "Hello I'm David."

"Honey this is Rachel Garrett."

"It's nice to meet all three of you!" I said with a smile.

Then little Caleb wanted his Daddy so I gave him up but couldn't help but watch them talking and playing together. And I suddenly had a longing to have a husband and to have a child. This was a new feeling for me, and I liked it but in a way I didn't like it because I didn't think that anyone would ever look at me the way David was looking at Jessica.

What I didn't know was that someone already looked at me like that.

Nicks POV:

I was inside a shop when I saw Jonathan out the window just standing there.

Then I saw Rachel coming along, she wasn't watching where she was going and she ran right into him.

She looked up and I guess she apologized. He replied with some smart remark I'm sure. Then she smiled at him, I had never seen her smile at me like that, does that mean that she really does like him?

That hurt to think about. You see I had been in Love with the girl since I was twelve and she was ten.

Of course I tried to hide it but it had slipped a few times but thankfully she didn't notice. One of those times was a couple nights ago when I had almost kissed her. I'm pretty sure she was leaning in too though. But I didn't have time to find out thanks to Mathew.

He was a getting to close for my liking and I was about to go out to break it up but then he walked away from her. My heart snapped as I saw her smile as she walked away. She liked Jonathan. I wondered how that was possible. I knew that family, I had met them a couple years back when I was visiting one of the neighboring towns. Every time I had seen him in that town he had a different girl on his arm sometimes more than one.

So why would he go for a sweet girl like Rachel? Well other than the fact that she is perfect in every way.

"Why hello there, long time no see!" It was a voice that I knew but that I had hoped that I could avoid during her stay. I had been daydreaming or I would have seen her coming and hid.

"Hello Beatrice." I said with an annoyed sigh. She had tried stirring up a relationship last time I had seen her she had even tried to kiss me but I was able to avoid that. And when I refused her she caused all kinds of trouble for me.

"You know. How about we have dinner tonight, around sevenish? I don't like to eat very early so we can have a late supper. Just come to the inn it's the only decent place to eat in this tiny little town."

"Beatrice I can't, I have things to do." He said, getting impatient.

"No abjections! I won't have it" She started to walk out the door but stopped to call back "Remember Seven O' clock At the inn."

I'm sure the look on my face was hysterical to any onlookers but I couldn't help it.

"What just happened?" I asked aloud. I didn't expect anyone to answer but someone did.

"You done got yerself a date with one feisty girl." It was the man behind the counter answering.

"Thanks a lot." I said sarcastically.

Then the man answered with a chuckle "At least she's perty."

I left then. I had a headache, to much was happening at once. I needed to go finish some important things before my stupid date.

Evil laugh! that first part was fun to write, hopefully I scared somebody when Nick died?

This was a very long chapter for me to write I hope you liked it!

Please please please REVIEW!

Tell me how it turned out!

In case I don't see ya!

Good morning Good evening and good night,

Ilikemutemath


	4. Jonathan and Nick

I looked in the mirror at my dress. "I guess it will have to do." I do not know why I want to impress him. "Hey, Matthew can you come here a minute?" I called.

"Yeah hun?" He said as he walked into my room.

"Should I wear my hair up or down?" I asked self-consciously.

"I like them both." he said with a shrug.

"But which one should I wear to impress somebody? Oh! Wait, I mean to not impress somebody." I said. I knew Mathew was confused but I was not sure if I wanted to impress Jonathan or not.

"The way you have it now is fine for both." he said with a chuckle as he walked out of the room.

I smoothed my dress out once more "You look fine," I told the person in the mirror. Her forehead wrinkled in a frown.

"But I don't want to look fine, you do. I would rather wear our sword fighting outfit than this dress, because Jonathan is not the one that I want to impress." She said with a hint in her voice.

"Oh? And who is it that you want to impress exactly?" I said getting angry with myself; I really had no clue about whom I was talking.

"Isn't it obvious? It-" I cut her short, "It's time to go, and I'm too old to be talking to you still, so ha." I said that last part a little childishly. I walked out of the room, annoyed. Who was she about to say?

I walked into The Inn and looked around for Jonathan. I finally saw him; he was sitting at a table in a dark corner. "Aww, It's gonna be so romantic." I whispered sarcastically to myself. He had probably planned it all out that way. A number of possible ways to make this night unpleasant for him passed though my head, but I quickly dismissed them. That would not be very nice and so far he had been nothing but kind to me.

"Hello, Rachel. Wow, you look… stunning." He said as he studied me with an open gaze, somehow I had gotten so used to it that I did not blush this time. However, my stomach did something weird, it was like butterflies but instead of it being a bad feeling, it felt rather good. It made me smile.

"Thank you. You look handsome yourself." He really did.

He smiled back. "Let's sit down." I sat on one side and he sat opposite me.

"So Rachel, what do you want to eat? I'd like to get the food out of the way so we can talk and get to know each other." He said with what I thought was a rather nice smile.

We ordered and the food came out quickly. Once we were done, we started to ask each other questions.

"So," he said, "do you like living in this town?"

"Yes, I have lived here all my life."

"Do you ever wish to leave? I mean there is a whole world out there." he said

"No, I think not. My parents died here and the ones that I love are here, why would I ever want to leave?"

"Do you ever wish to marry?" He said as he raised one of his eyebrows.

"Yes, and have kids." I said remembering earlier today with the baby Caleb; I sighed and looked down at my hands in my lap.

"Who are the most important people in your life, Rachel?" He asked kindly.

"Well there is Mathew he is like a father to me; also there is my adopted mother Mrs. Jackson, and my best friend Nick." I said with a smile.

His face turned up in a smirk. "You mean Nicholas Jackson?" he asked skeptically.

"Yes, do you know him?" I asked.

"Yes, He visited my sister and me about a year ago. He and Beatrice had a romantic spark back then." he chuckled "He followed her around like a lost puppy dog." Then he looked at me and smiled "but I'm sure you know about all of this."

I felt like I was going to barf up my stomach and everything in it. "Umm, yeah could you take me home? I'm not feeling too good." I asked him, remembering the last time I had tried to walk home when I felt sick.

"Of course, right away." He said with a worried look.

"Thank you."

We started to make our way out of the restaurant; Jonathan had a hand on my elbow worried that I would fall on my face. When he froze pulling me to a stop too, I looked at his face and then followed his eyes.

He was looking at a table across the room, at it sat his sister and someone else but I could not see his face because he was sitting with his back to us, she was laughing at something he had said, she looked pretty with a smile on her face.

Then she saw us and waved us over to her. I was hesitant to go to her; I really just wanted to get home.

However, Jonathan was already walking over, and he was still holding my arm so I had no choice but to go with him.

When we got to the table, I saw who was with her and my heart dropped from its place in my chest to my stomach. It was Nick. Nick was at a table with Beatrice Redmond.

"Rachel darling, it's so nice to see you again! Have you met Nicholas?" She said her voice was sickly sweet.

"Yes, I have." I said, trying to keep my voice level.

I looked at Nick; he was staring at me, why was he staring at me?

He frowned. "Actually, we have known each other for our whole lives." He said then he looked from my face to Jonathan's hand on my arm, up to Jonathan's face then back to my face, with a question in his eyes.

In response to his unspoken question, I looked to Beatrice, then to the table then back to him and raised my eyebrows. His eyes darted to Beatrice then to Jonathan, but I didn't understand what he meant.

"I didn't see you come in Jonathan, where were you sitting?" Beatrice asked her brother.

"We were sitting over there in the corner." He jerked his thumb towards the other side of the room.

"Oh! How romantic." She said as she looked from Jonathan to me.

A wave of nausea caused me to miss what Nick said but apparently, it was funny because everyone but me laughed. In addition, Beatrice put her hand on top of Nick's which was lying on the table as she said, "Oh Nick you are so funny!" She said this in a voice thick with flirting, accompanied by a flirtatious smile. That caused a feeling that I did not like, I was pretty sure it was jealousy. Why am I jealous? I am not allowed to be jealous, because Nick is not mine.

Then I turned to Jonathan "Can we please go now?" I looked up at him with pleading eyes, as I said this.

"Umm yeah sure, it's nice to see you again Nicholas. See you at home Bea." I would not look at Nick again, I could not, or I would start crying. Jonathan slid his arm around my waist, and I was glad because I needed the extra support.

"Are you okay?" He asked when we were out of earshot.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just need some air." I said trying not to lie completely.

We finally got outside and I took a deep breath of air, still trying not to cry. I don't know why I am so emotional tonight. I thought.

We walked in silence, his arm still around me because I still needed it, and he seemed to know that.

We reached my house, he still had not said anything to me, until now, "You're in love with him aren't you?" He asked in a whisper.

I thought about this, I had never considered Nick as more than a brother, but now I'm not so sure. "I don't know I used to know but… I'm just not sure of anything anymore." I said. "I'm sorry-" My voice cracked, and a tear escaped from my eye.

He caught it with his thumb, but did not remove his hand from my face; instead, he laid his other hand on the other side of my face. He tipped my head and kissed my hair.

"Good luck with him, I'll try to keep my sister away from him, and oh, Rachel?" He said as if he had just remembered something.

"Yes?"

"I lied to you earlier, about Bea and Nick, I said that Nick followed Bea like a puppy, but it was the other way around and Nick wasn't even interested, at all." He lowered his head humbly. "I guess I'm turning into one of my family."

"It's ok, really. Moreover, you are not that bad, I actually liked you tonight. Hey, how about we get together again soon! But as friends this time?" I said, feeling sorry for him but also really wanting to see him again.

"Thank you. You really do look stunning. I had fun tonight." He said with a genuine smile.

"Thank you too, for everything. I meant what I said about getting together again. Hey, do you like swordsmanship?" I asked excitedly.

"Umm, Yeah I guess." He said, confused by the turn of the conversation.

I laughed at his expression. "How 'bout we meet here, tomorrow afternoon, at three O' clock?" I asked hopefully.

It was his turn to laugh at my expression. "Sure, why not?"

"Okay, wear your fighting clothes and bring your sword." I said as I reached up on the tips of my toes and kissed him on the cheek. I bounced towards the house, but before I went in I called back "Thank you again! "And remember tomorrow at three!"

"I'll remember!" he called back, and I could hear the smile in his voice, he was laughing at me!

I stuck my tongue out in his direction, I knew he could see me because I was standing in the door and the light was shining on me. I heard a laugh coming from the darkness. I smiled.

I went to my room, got changed, and got in bed then I started thinking about all that had happened today, It had turned out to be a good day, I finally fell asleep with Nick on my mind, a smile on my lips, and I didn't have a bad dream that night, but I did have good dreams.

Nick's POV:

I couldn't believe my eyes when Rachel walked up to our table, because she looked well, perfect, along with all of this; engrossing, inviting, entrancing, riveting, exhilarating, spine-tingling, pretty, stunning, gorgeous, striking, elegant, graceful, flowing, extraordinary, astonishing, prominent, attractive, charismatic, picturesque, vivid, charming, exquisite, magnificent, lovely, superb, beautiful, cute, appealing, endearing, fascinating, beguiling, sweet, engaging, adorable, fresh, salubrious, tempting, likable, refreshing, interesting, alluring, marvelous, fabulous, wonderful, outstanding, bravura, superlative, intense, delicate, captivating, amiable, fascinating, enchanting, magnetic, alluring, enticing, enthralling, spellbinding, mesmeric, enlivening, invigorating, and breathtaking.

I could not take my eyes away from her. Beatrice asked, "Rachel darling, have you met Nicholas?"

Rachel replied with, "Yes, I have."

Ouch, that smarts. "Actually, we have known each other for our whole lives." That is when I noticed someone was holding onto Rachel's arm, I looked up to the man's face and realized who it was, is Rachel okay with this? Does she like this guy?

I looked back to her, questioning in my eyes.

Then she accused me with her eyes. I tried to make her understand, but you can only do so much with your eyes you know.

I did not catch what Beatrice said because I was daydreaming about you know who.

However, I did see the obtuse idiot, jerk his thumb in the direction of the dark corner on the other side of the room, and then I heard Beatrice say, "Oh, how romantic!"

"You know dark corners like that were originally made so that when a boy takes a girl out, she won't see him blushing." He mumbled but apparently it was funny and everyone laughed but Rachel.

Then Beatrice put her hand on mine and said "Oh, Nick you are so funny!"

I looked up at Rachel; she looked like she was going to loose her supper. Then she turned towards Jonathan, and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes, whispering. "Can we please go now?"

"Umm yeah sure, it's nice to see you again Nicholas, see you at home Bea." Then he slipped his arm around her waist, as they walked away, and it took all my strength not to punch that guy.

What I did not understand was why she was letting him do it, but then she laid her head on his shoulder. Crack! That was my heart breaking in two.

I turned to Beatrice, "I'm going to head out too, see you around."

When I got home and in my bed, I started to cry, I cried because I wanted to talk to my mom, I wanted to ask her what to do, but she was gone and would not be back until morning. In addition, I wanted to talk to Rachel, I wanted to tell her how much and how long I have loved her. I wanted to talk to Jonathan, because he was in love with Rachel, I wanted to talk to him, even though I probably would only have time to say things to him between the punches I throw.

I finally fell asleep with Rachel on my mind, and tears on my cheeks.

I did not have any good dreams, but I did have bad ones.

Noon the next day.

Rachel's POV

"Mathew, do you know where my boots are?" I asked as I came out of my room and into the kitchen.

"Which ones? The nice ones are in your closet, the muddy work ones should be under your bed, and the fighting ones are sitting behind you." He said with a deep chuckle.

"Oh! If it were a snake, it would have bit me! Thank you." I picked up my boots then I bounced back into my room. I had not worn this outfit in a while, I used to wear it almost every day, but- Umm, well I don't really know what happened.

I pulled my hair up into its bun, another thing that I do not know what changed to make me stop. We finished our lunch, and I went out to the back yard, to practice and get warmed up before Jonathan got here.

I was in mid swing when Matthew came out "Is Nick coming? Or do you want me to stay and fight you?"

"Umm neither, actually Jonathan Redmond is coming over. -Is that okay?" I asked while I swung at my invisible opponent.

"Of course, I'm glad that you two are getting along well. But I don't want you to leave Nick out just because you have a new friend. Why don't you have Nick over too?"

I don't know if that such a good idea. "Okay, I'll go right now and ask him." I said. This is going to be interesting.

I walked slowly down the street; I wasn't in any hurry to get there.

I knocked on the door, I don't know why, I had never knocked before, and I had always walked right in.

Nick opened the door; it seemed he was in the middle of getting ready, because he was wearing pants but no shirt. I had seen him without a shirt before, but today he seemed more… muscular, and handsome. Where did that come from? I blushed at my thoughts.

He cleared his throat, jerking me out of my daydreaming. "Oh, y-yeah. Umm, w-would you like to come over and fight me today?" I asked, not sure why I was so embarrassed, I mean he was still my best friend. I still hadn't looked at his face yet, and I was looking at the ground when I asked this.

"Sure." His voice was a bit husky like he had just woken up.

I wasn't expecting this answer, after how I treated him last night. I looked up at his face then, he was wearing a smile that made my heart explode with happiness.

"Would you still want to come if Jonathan was there too?" I asked with my eyes closed because I knew what he was going to say but I hoped that he wouldn't say it.

"Sure." he said again.

My eyes snapped open and my head jerked up. "Really?" I asked happily.

"Yeah, but can I get a shirt on first, or do you want me to stay this way?" He said teasing me.

I gave him a hug. "Thank you."

"What for?" he asked.

"Just being you." I said.

"Well then I guess I need to be me more often if I get rewarded like this." He said as he hugged me back.

Nick's POV

I opened the door, and there stood Rachel, her hair in its bun and, curls that had gotten loose framing her face. She was wearing the shirt that I wore when I was thirteen; I had given it to her when I grew out of it.

And she was also wearing her sword fighting pants and boots.

She looked at me, I wasn't wearing a shirt, and then she turned a charming shade of pink. I cleared my throat, I hadn't used it yet today so it was a little dry, that seemed to break her concentration on my shirtlessness.

She looked at the ground, embarrassed. "Oh yeah. Umm, would you like to come over and fight me today?"

She asked, tripping over her sentences. She's so cute when she's embarrassed.

I had nothing better to do than to be with her. "Sure." I said, with a delighted smile that she still wanted to be anywhere near me after what I did last night.

She finally looked at my face, questioningly. Then a smile spread across her face. But it was washed away as she thought of something else; she closed her eyes and asked "Would you still want to come if Jonathan was there too?"

Of course, nothing, even Jonathan was going to keep me from being with her today. "Sure."

I said again.

She opened her eyes, "Really?" She asked, with a beautiful smile.

I couldn't help teasing her a bit. "Yeah, but can I get a shirt on first, or do you want me to stay this way?" I wasn't expecting the reaction I got. She hugged me and said, "Thank you."

"What for?"

"Just being you." She said sweetly.

"Well then I guess I need to be me more often if I get rewarded like this." I said as I hugged her back.

I went in and got a shirt and my sword and then we walked in companionable silence back to her house.

When we got there we found Jonathan on her front porch. Rachel gave him a little side hug when he stood, and that didn't help my dislike for this man.

"I like your outfit." He was saying to Rachel. I realized that he hadn't ever seen Rachel fight. Oh this is going to be fun.

End of Nick's POV

Rachel's POV

When we got to the backyard I got my sword and got in position to fight, this seemed to shock Jonathan because he said, "I thought me and Nick were going to fight. I uh, no offense but I don't want to hurt you."

Me and Nick burst out laughing. Jonathan looked from me to Nick and then back to me again.

"Just try it." Nick said, with a mischievous smile.

Jonathan started to say, "I really don't think it's a good-" I cut him off with a blow to his sword.

When he realized that I knew how to hold a sword, the look on his face was comical. Then it started, He would swing at me and I would parry the blow, I danced around him poking at him here and there but never really trying. Because this is how I test my opponents, so I can get used to there style of fighting before I make my move.

I could tell that he wasn't trying either, until Nick muttered something about being beat by a girl, I'm pretty sure he was talking about himself, but Jonathan took it the wrong way. He brought down a hard blow, towards my head and I put my sword up to stop it. The impact made my knees buckle underneath me, and I went down. Jonathan paused to see if I was okay, and I used the distraction to gain the upper hand.

I swung my leg hitting him squarely behind the knees, making him fall down, and then I bounced up and put my sword to his throat. I smiled, that was too easy.

"So Jonathan, how about you and me have a go?" Nick said.

"Okay." He said as he pulled his shirt that was drenched in sweat off and tossed it beside me on the ground.

They got in position and then Nick said in a low menacing tone, "Bring it." I had never seen his face so aggressive, or determined. I had a very bad feeling about this.

Jonathan swung his sword with a cry that sounded fit for war, the sound of clashing metal pierced my ears. They were almost blurs as they fought, it went on for quite awhile, and very few times I heard grunts of pain as a blade found its purchase.

It seemed they would never stop, when finally Jonathan collapsed on the ground followed closely by Nick.

They looked at each other tensely, and then a loud rumble of laughter erupted from both of their chests, causing me to jump.

"That was… interesting." said Jonathan.

"Interesting indeed." replied Nick with a grin.

Nick got up slowly, favoring where Jonathan had hit him. Then he reached a hand out to Jonathan to help him up.

"Okay, how about we go inside and I fix us some food?" I said as an invitation for them to stay for supper.

"What do you think Jonathan?" Nick said with a suspicious smile.

"Hmm, is she a good cook?" He asked with a grin that looked a lot like Nick's.

"One of the best. You just don't want to be on her bad side when she is cooking for you. Oh and don't eat the pudding she makes." He said this like something bad happens when I'm mad.

"Come on ladies lets skip the chatter and get inside. I think it's going to rain soon." I said as I looked up at the clouds.

We went inside and I left them in the living room talking while I went into the kitchen to make supper. After awhile they wandered in looking for something to snack on, I was just slicing potatoes and was waiting on the oven to warm so I could cook the meat.

Nick sat down in front of me on the other side of the counter; he propped his elbows up and then laid his head in his hands. He just sat there watching me.

Jonathan was trying to get some icing without me noticing. I slapped his hand away like five times before he finally gave up and sat down beside Nick.

"Can one of you open the oven please? And then the other can start cutting tomatoes." I said with a smile.

Nick came around the counter opening the door to the oven so I could put the heavy tray in. And I heard cutting coming from the other side of the counter.

We finished cooking, and we sat down to a hot mouth watering supper.

I looked at Nick and raised my brows in silent questioning. We took the hands on ether side of us, bowed our heads, and Nick started to pray. "Father, we thank you for the food that we are about to eat and please help it go to the nourishment of our bodies, thank you for the wonderful day that we had with friends, and help us to have a nice night in Jesus' name, amen." He gently squeezed my hand before letting it go.

"So when do you and your family leave town Jonathan?" I asked.

"In about three or four days." He said.

"We will miss having you around, and you will be welcomed back if you ever choose to return." As I was saying this the rain started pouring down and I had to talk louder.

"Wow." Nick said as he pointed out the window.

I jumped up and went to the window, I loved the rain, and it was the most beautiful weather in my opinion. And Mrs. Jackson has taken care of me many times when I had gotten sick from going out in the rain.

You couldn't see anything further than the window. It was amazing. "It's so beautiful!" I said aloud.

"Don't even think about going out there Rachel." Nick whispered in my ear. I hadn't even heard him come over.

"I wasn't." I hated it when he knew exactly what I was thinking.

"Lies." He said this and then I felt a small pressure on the top of my head. Whoa, did he just kiss me?

We went back and finished supper, and then we all moved into the living room.

We talked for awhile, waiting on the rain to stop so they could go home.

The rain finally slowed down enough and Jonathan went home, leaving Nick and me together in the living room. He moved to sit beside me on the couch. I leaned up against him, and he put his arm around me. The feeling of closeness made me happier than usual and I started thinking about the question Jonathan had asked me the other night.

Could I be in love with Nick? Maybe, if love is your heart exploding every time you see him, and you needing him to help you piece it back together then yeah, I am in love with him. I smiled up at him, he was asleep. I sat there and watched his throat every time he swallowed, I watched his lips move like he was trying to say something. Then he actually said something, "Rachel" he whispered in a panicky voice as his arm tightened around me.

He is dreaming about me! I put my arms around him trying to calm him down, because he was having a nightmare. After a little while I fell asleep, wrapped in each others arms.

That is how Matthew found us. He smiled happily down at us. He had watched us grow together and he had seen exactly when both of us had fallen in love with the other. He only prayed that we would both realize it, because he was getting old and tired, he could not take care of us very much longer.

Matthew had been the father figure for Nick too and Nick loved him like a father, and hoped that maybe someday he would have Matthew as a father in law.


	5. Changes

**This chapter has been updated with the help of the amazing Pokemonchen! Thank you deary!**

**Please review!**

* * *

><p>I opened my eyes, it was morning outside and I was lying on the couch. This is a really comfortable couch. How did I get here again? Slowly the happenings of the night before trickled back into my memory. I was still teetering between reality and sleep, so things weren't quite clear to me. That is why I didn't realize that my pillow was breathing.<p>

"Good morning, sleeping beauty." My pillow vibrated the words into my ear. I looked up into a pair of dark brown eyes. "Oh!" I jumped up off the couch, flushing a bright shade of pink.

Nick chuckled. "Umm, w-what time is it?" I stuttered, I was getting very annoyed at myself.

"I don't know. Did you sleep well?" He asked.

"Yeah I was really uh… comfortable." I flushed again as I said this.

He laughed. "So what are you planning for today?" He asked, changing the subject.

I thought for a moment. "I don't have anything to do really. Is your mom home yet? I haven't spent time with her in so long, I really miss her." I said.

"Yeah, she's home and I'm sure she would love a visit from you." He said with a smile.

"Okay, I'm going to go get ready, you can look for some breakfast in the kitchen if you want." I said excitedly as I ran to my room.

We walked through the puddles of rain water, to his house and found Mrs. Jackson in the kitchen making bread.

"Good morning, dears how are you both?" She asked cheerfully. I smiled as Nick walked over to her. Patiently waiting for my turn to hug my 'mother'.

"Rachel, I have a new recipe I want to teach you. Are you staying today?" She asked me.

"Yes I'm staying. What is the recipe?" I questioned enthusiastically.

I learned a few more recipes, Nick tried them out and approved of them all. (Which made me very happy.)

I realized that every time I look at Nick I notice things that I didn't notice before, and he gets more and more attractive.

**I was washing my hands in the sink as I heard a voice saying, "Are you going to tell her son?"**

**I realized that it was Mrs. Jackson and Nick whispering and I quietly listened, even though I knew it was rude to do so.**

**"Not yet… I plan to tell her later," whispered Nick.**

**"I see," his mother whispered back as I came into their view.**

**(A/N The sentences in bold print were thought up by the lovely Pokemonchen!)**

The sun started going down and Nick offered to walk me home. When we were almost to my house we rounded a corner and I almost tripped over a little girl, and her mother. "You're the pwincess from the ball!" She exclaimed. Which confused me for a second but then I realized who she was.

"Oh, hello dear little princess! You know I don't think we know each others names." I said, happy that we were able to see each other again.

"My name is Olivia Englerth, and this is my mother." she smiled widely.

"Are you the one from the masquerade ball? It is a pleasure to meet you, she has told me all about the prince and princess. You know that you had a very big influence on Olivia? She used to be shy and she didn't have any friends, but she is now Princess Olivia and she has many friends. Her father and I are very grateful to you." Olivia's mother said to me.

"Wow, I had no idea. I'm just so glad I met this beautiful little girl. And by the way I'm Rachel and this is Nick" I said, trying not to cry.

"Okay Olivia, say goodbye to miss Rachel we need to get home, It was very nice meeting you Rachel" Said Mrs. Englerth.

"Bye, Princess Rachel, bye Prince Nick!" Olivia said with a giggle.

"Bye." I called back.

When we got to my door I turned to thank Nick for bringing me home, and paused when I saw the pained look on his face.

"Rachel." His eyes looked intensely pained as he said my name.

"I'll be going away for a few weeks." He put his hand on my cheek, looking deep into my eyes. "I won't be back for a while. So don't go getting into trouble while I'm gone." He finished with a husky voice.

"Why?" I asked.

He sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask that." He took a deep breath, then continued. "There is a medium sized war going on in the kingdom of Clerresa, our King has ordered that all able bodied men join the fight, to aid our sister kingdom." As he finished he searched my face, trying to find my reaction.

I'm sure the fear and pain was evident on my face. And I could feel tears stinging the back of my eyes.

"Why?" I asked again, but this time my voice was thick with unshed tears.

He enveloped me in a hug. As I soaked the front of his shirt, I thought about what he meant to me, and I wondered why it hurt so much for him to leave. He seemed to sense that I needed to just stand there in his arms for awhile.

I pulled away slightly, just enough to see his face, he froze. "What-" I started to ask what was wrong, but his expression caught me off guard. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what kind of thoughts his expression portrayed, but perhaps that was because it was a mixture of many feelings. It looked as if he was trying his hardest not to do something, though it also looked like he was in pain because he was not doing that one thing.

He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, finally after some time they slowly opened again. He searched my eyes, I felt like he was looking straight through me. I couldn't look away, his eyes were hypnotizing.

He started closing the distance between us, and I tilted my face towards him in anticipation. When our lips finally met, warmth spread through my stomach, and a shiver went down my spine. My arms seemingly of their own accord, moved to his shoulders so that I could pull him closer. I felt his hands go to the small of my back pulling me gently closer to him.

Our lips seemed to move in sinc with each other. When neither of us could go without air much longer, we reluctantly parted. He leaned his forehead against mine, as we both gasped for breath. He pulled away enough to measure my reaction. My face wrinkled into a frown, as I remembered the fact that he was leaving soon.

He removed himself from my arms completly, and said in a voice that made me flinch, "I should not have done that, forgive me." He said as he turned on his heel and walked off in the other direction.

"Good evening." I said, even though he was already out of earshot.

I turned to go inside, I knew tonight I should be happy, but just because I had kissed Nick doesn't erase the fact that he was going to war.

As I entered the house, I heard voices coming from the direction of living room. I planned to just sneak by and hope no one heard me. I didn't feel like being social with any one right now, but I couldn't help but pause by the door to see what they were talking about.

"She will not be able to stay here forever, you understand that right?" A voice that sounded vaguely familiar said.

Then I heard Matthew sigh tiredly, as he answered. "I know that, you do not have to remind me. She is safe and happy right now, just leave her be. If only for a few more years."

The man's next comment made me jump, for it was yelled angrily across the room. "You are denying her birthright to her! Why are you so insistant about this subject? You need to tell her now!" The man paused and calmed down a bit. Then he said, "Your mission was to keep her safe until her eighteenth birthday, that day is only a few weeks away. You're finished here."

I walked stealthily into my room, and shut the door behind me. Where they talking about me? Or someone completely different? Why in the world would someone want me?

It took me awhile getting to sleep, every thing was crowding my mind and giving me a headache.

Late in the night, I finally fell asleep , but nightmares crowded my slumber.


	6. Secrets

**New filler chap is up! **

**Happiness!**

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><p>The next morning I lay in my bed, my limbs felt like dead weight, and my brain felt slow. I had not gotten a good night sleep in last night, so I just lay here, thinking; reassessing life in general. I was wondering if my life has been worthwhile. Wondering why the world seemed so harsh. Wondering if all the decisions I had made were the right ones. Wondering why I felt like something terrible was about to happen.<p>

I smelled something burning, my eyes snapped open. Matthew was probably attempting to fix breakfast. I looked out the window. "I overslept!" I flipped the covers off, and rolled out of bed. I yanked my wardrobe door open, and grabbed the first dress my hands touched. I had to get to the kitchen before Matthew burned the whole house down.

I fastened the buttons down the front of my dress and quickly ran my fingers through my hair then left it hanging down my back, because I did not have time to do anything else with it. "He could have woken me up." I grumbled as I sprinted to the kitchen.

Upon entering, chaos greeted me; there was bacon blackening in a pan, in another pan there was an unknown substance putting off an awful odor, and as I passed the trashcan, I saw the remains of charred biscuits. Matthew was standing in the middle of it all, a despondent look on his face.

I pinched my nose as I grabbed the unknown thing and carried it to the trash. Then I went back for the bacon, (which was now shriveled to half its size) and added it to the trash can as well.

Then I turned to Matthew, without a word I quirked an eyebrow.

He grinned and said cheerfully. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

I sighed, "Not really, I was thinking about some things." Then I remembered the strange conversation between Matthew and that man. I decided to ask him about it, "Who was that man from last night?" I asked trying to sound casual.

Matthew looked at me with a queer expression. "I thought you were asleep. He's an old friend of mine." He turned to look out the window, and then he went on talking. "Did you… recognize him?" He asked me.

"No, I've never seen him in my life." I paused as I thought about how his voice had sounded extremely familiar. "Although… I think I have heard his voice before."

Matthew turned to me, his eyes round. "You heard us talking?" Matthew was acting so peculiar over a little visit from a friend. Maybe it was a bigger deal than I thought. My question of whom they were talking about still wasn't answered. Alternatively, was it?

_He is kind of beating around the bush isn't he? I feel like we are getting nowhere. _"I heard a little part of the conversation, I didn't understand most of what I heard though. So… was there a reason behind his visit?" I hoped he would tell me what they were talking about last night.

He looked straight into my eyes, and then he sighed. "He just wanted to visit."

I heard the man yelling last night; that was no friendly visit. I looked at him for a second longer before turning on my heel and walking away, I did not feel like fighting with Matthew today. I was still sleep deprived, and incredibly grouchy.

I headed for the door, and called over my shoulder. "I'm going for a walk, I don't know when I'll be back." then I slammed the door behind me.

I had to get away from there quickly, before I decide I wanted to vent all my stress out on him. I ran through the gate of our yard, and into the woods.

_Matthew lied to me. He lied straight to my face._ I thought angrily as I ran. I soon heard the sound of the stream, and I knew I would have to pick up speed if I was going to make the jump across without getting wet. My heart started beating hard, my hands curled into fists, my feet launched off the ground steadily growing in speed. _I have to time this just right… __Three_, I heard the water right where I knew it would be, _two_, the rippling as all the molecules raced each other, _One, _I launched myself over the stream. Air flew past me giving me a floating feeling, and then I hit solid ground. I crouched on the other side as I balanced myself and took in my surroundings.

My senses have always been extremely heightened when I am in the forest. I can hear in a further range than most people can. When I'm in the forest at night I can see better than normal people. I can run a little faster than human speed. I can even smell more things; today the air consisted of pine needles, rain, and something sickly sweet.

As I felt my temper cooling off I began to wish Nick was with me. I looked back the way I had come. _He lied to me! Why didn't he just tell me what- or who the man came for?_ As I thought about it, the anger boiled over again. _I cannot go back yet._ I took off running, going deeper into the forest, trying to run from all my feelings, from all of my anger, my fears and my pain.

I finally came to a small circular clearing; wild flowers were growing in small bundles throughout the small field. It was so peaceful. I doubled over and let out a sob, all my pent up feelings came rushing out in that one moment. Tears streamed down my face.

Then I heard a twig snap, I spun around. Looking into the trees, I tried to identify the source. Something was fast approaching; I backed into the middle of the field.

Finally I saw what had made the noise; the figure of a man was jogging towards me. I considered running away, but decided against that. Then he broke through the trees, revealing his face. It was none other than Nick. He bent over hands on his stomach gasping for breath, not unlike the way I was just doubled over a few seconds ago; however he was doing it because he needed air in his lungs.

He gasped one more time before he straightened, and he said through breaths, "You're… really… fast. "

He sat down on the grass, while I stared at him. Then he looked up at me, he looked at me sympathetically then he patted the ground beside him, inviting me to sit.

I practically collapsed beside him laying flat on my back, while he stayed sitting up, twirling a flower between his forefinger and thumb. Keeping his eyes on the flower he asked, "Why are you crying?"

I hadn't noticed until then that hot tears were still rolling down my face, I looked at him, and another sob escaped my lips as I thought of him leaving. "I'm going to miss you when you leave." It wasn't a complete lie. I felt better when Nick was sitting beside me.

He nodded, "I'm going to miss you too." He still hadn't looked at me, he swallowed. "Are you sure that's all?"

_He can always see straight through me. _I sighed, "There's something Matthew is not telling me. He flat out lied to me this morning."

Nick turned hi head slowly towards me, a weird expression on his face. I gasped, "You know what it is, don't you?" I stood and paced away from him, then just loud enough for him to hear I said, "And you're not going to tell me." I closed my eyes, the exhaustion from my little run finally catching up with me.

I heard him come up behind me; he put his hand on my shoulder and turned me around to face him. His eyes were pleading, "Rachel It's just that it's really unbelievable, and very complicated. Are you sure you want to know?"

I looked into his eyes, wondering what he was about to share with me. Then I said determinedly "Yes, I am very sure." Then I sucked in a breath, hoping it wouldn't be something bad.

Nick looked away from me, his gaze distant, then he said, "It's not really my place to tell you, but we can go together to ask Matthew."

I let the breath out, disappointed. "Fine." I said a little bit harsher than needed.

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><p><strong>Made with overflowing love<strong>

**by Your Faithful Author,**

**Ilikemutemath**


	7. Sorrow and Regrets part 1 of 2

**Hiya! **

**(BTW) ****Don't kill me!**

**Hope you love it!**

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><p><em>Are you sure you want to know?"<em>

_I looked into his eyes, wondering what he was about to share with me. Then I said determinedly "Yes, I'm very sure." I sucked in a breath, hoping it would not be something bad._

_Nick severed the eye contact, then he said, "It's not really my place to tell you, but we can go together to ask Matthew."_

_I let the breath out, disappointed. "Fine." I said, a little bit harsher than needed._

_~End of Flashback._

I started to turn to leave, but he grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop. "Rachel, we don not have to go right now do we? After all I'm leaving tomorrow, and I was hoping I could spend some time with you." As he said those words, a sharp pain erupted in my stomach. I clung to his arm, and then choked out, "So soon." I forgot all of my silly anger and in that one moment, it was replaced by a burning need for him to stay.

He must have noticed that I was trembling, because he wrapped his arms around me. "Yes, the notice arrived this morning. The battle has gotten intense, they need more men and quickly. I would have left this morning, but I hadn't said goodbye to you yet." His hand moved up and down on my back, trying to comfort me.

I took a deep, albeit shaky breath. I was not going to make this harder on him than it absolutely had to be. "What did you have in mind?" I tried to cover up the shaking in my voice with a laugh. However, it came out sounding more like a choked gurgle.

He leaned away, and then laughed. "Well first off, you're a mess! And second…" He bent his head down, his lips hovering just above mine. Instead of our lips touching, he pressed his forehead to mine, and sighed deeply. Then he whispered, "You torture me so." He closed his eyes as he said this,

My eyes widened, "I torture you? You're the one who acts like you're going to kiss me!" I said incredulously.

He laughed humorlessly and walked a little ways away from me. Facing the other side of the woods, he rubbed the back of his head in a frustrated manner. "I- I just can't!" I felt my stomach start to twist, "Why?" He walked a little further away as he answered. "Because I'm not… able to."

I walked stubbornly over to him; I grabbed his hand and turned him towards me. I looked into his eyes, and I noticed they were leaking tears, as I studied his face the pain in his eyes intensified.

He whispered again, "I'm not able to." However, this time it seemed there was an urgent message behind his words.

"I don't understand." I felt like I too was on the verge of tears.

He grabbed my shoulders, and shook them slightly as he said, "We can only be friends! I do not love you like that… I never have." I stared at Nick with large eyes until it sunk slowly in; when I finally got the message, I thought I was going to be sick.

_I have always loved you like that, even if I hadn't realized it then. _My head swam and I hoped I would not fall over."Rachel, are you okay?" He asked in a worried tone.

I looked up at him, then replied in a tone that portrayed nothing had happened between us, "Yes, what did you have planned for today?" I smiled a very convincing smile.

He looked almost disappointed. Then he straightened up and replied with, "I thought we could have a picnic." Then he pulled out a basket from where he had left it behind a tree.

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><p><em><strong>AN**_

**Whaaaaaaaaaaat?**

**I know it's short, and I have the next chapter all typed up..**

**But I wanted to have all of ya'll in agony, waiting for the answer to your questions.**

** Do not panic I will post it soon... maybe. **

***Evil Smile***


	8. Sorrow and Regrets part 2

**Rifinito con il capitolo!**

**Vi auguro una primavera prospera!**

**Enjoy.**

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><p><strong>Nick's POV <strong>

**(Right After Their Kiss)**

I leaned my forehead against Rachel's as I tried to catch my breath. I had wanted to do that for as long as I could remember. Then I realized that she might not have approved of the kiss. I pulled my head back enough to determine her reaction. It seemed she was floating at first, then she remembered something and she frowned. I stepped away, placing air between us.

I knew she probably was not frowning about me, but I was a little embarrassed. Therefore, I mumbled out my excuses and made my escape. _I have to get away from this girl, before I ask her to marry me right now_.

I sighed as I remembered that that would be impossible anyway, her social status being what it is. I had resigned myself a long time ago to being only friends with her; even though I loved her, more than anyone knew.

_I am not supposed to love her though it is against the rules. _I thought to myself.

The first time I had to face the fact that I could never love Rachel was when I became her official bodyguard. I was about fifteen, she was thirteen, Rachel and I weren't extremely close then, but we knew of each other, considering our fathers were the only ones that didn't come back from that war. Later I found that we had both dealt with our pain very differently; she had locked herself in her father's room and become depressed, I had gone to the woods and killed animals with my bow.

One day, as I was walking out my door to go to the forest, my mother stopped me saying, "Nicholas, will you please accompany me today? I have a few patients that are being… stubborn. I think you could help me with them." This was normal, my mother often asked me to help her with some illness or another. Therefore, I agreed to go with her instead of to the woods.

We came to a house that I faintly recognized but I could not place who lived inside. My mother paused in the yard, looked up at the second story window, and sighed. Then she continued on, when we came to the door she lifted her fist to knock, but ended up just walking right in. Now this was abnormal, she never walked right in unless the person that was sick was near death.

I took a deep breath; praying the person was not dieing. I had never been good with death. She continued upstairs. However, I paused just inside the door. The lamps and candles were all out, giving the house an empty feeling. It was creepy, so I then hurried after my mother.

I looked around at the top of the stairs, unsure of which door my mother had entered. When I finally opened the right door, the sight froze me. there was a girl around my age, curled in a loose fetal position in the middle of a massive bed. She was wearing a knee length black dress, her thick dark brown curls made a shade, covering her face, and there was a strange quiver to her shoulders. She looked extremely vulnerable and weak, making me want to protect her.

I stepped cautiously forward, not wanting to scare her. I gently brushed the hair back from her face, she sobbed as she looked up at me. I looked into her eyes; a pain was there that rekindled my own grief. I felt a strange unbreakable bond form in that one second.

I glanced up to find my mother's eyes trained on me, she had tears falling down her face, but she quickly wiped them away. She walked over with a thermometer, and gently tucked it in the girl's mouth, as it rose above the hundred mark I wondered what was wrong with her. I remembered mother walking right through the door, and I sullenly realized she might be dieing.

_Nevertheless, such a healthy looking girl would not be dieing it must be something else. _I thought to myself, suddenly I wanted very badly to know what was wrong with her, so that I could help her in some way.

I grabbed my mothers hand and pulled her into the hall, shutting the door behind me. I turned to her and asked urgently, "What's wrong with her?"

My mother looked at me for a time before saying "Her father died, she is depressed." She paused and took my hand again. Looking into my eyes, she said the last thing I expected to hear. "That girl's second name is Saventia."

I sucked in a sharp breath. _She__ is one of The Hidden. _I thought, shocked. "Is she-"

My mother nodded, but then she quickly corrected me. "She doesn't know though, her mother was a friend of mine, and she wanted her daughter to live a normal life before being thrust into the wolfish society world." Then she looked at me pointedly, "You must not tell her. Do you understand? The reason I brought you here today is because her father was the one your father died trying to save."

I stared at her, hardly able to take it all in.

"Nicholas, I need you to protect her. She is all alone in the world, and she is making herself sick with grief. She has not eaten in a while; do you think you could try to get a bowl of soup down her? She seemed to be comfortable around you." I nodded in reply, and as I fed her spoonful by spoonful, she watched my every move with her big brown eyes. I silently promised to protect her as long as I lived, no matter the cost.

I thought of all of this as I slowly walked back to my house, and only when I walked in and my mother greeted me did I stop my daydreaming. I beamed down at her, but she did not smile back. She whispered, "Someone is here to see you, It's that man again, I do not think he is happy."

My smile faded. _Did they see us together?_ I thought as I walked into the sitting room. "Hello again. It has been awhile has it not, Nicholas?" I grimaced, I hated that voice and it's owner.

"What do you want Daniel?" I asked in a menacing tone.

He chuckled, but his face was serious. "I heard you decided to kiss her." He pulled a book off a shelf. Then continued talking. "You see… Nick that presents a problem for us. It is, as you well know, almost her eighteenth birthday. In addition, she will be leaving not long after that. As it turns out, she happens to love you. You could see why that is a problem." He waited expectantly for my answer.

"What do you want me to do about that? I can not just change her feelings for me." I said smugly.

An evil grin spread across his face and he said, "Tell her that you don't love her, break her heart."

"Never!" I snarled through clenched teeth.

He chuckled. "You don't have a choice. She will suffer even more if you do not tell her; remember to make her believe that it is the truth. And Nicholas, the King also says to get to the battle field as soon as possible, he is going to send out a notice tomorrow but he knew I was coming here, and he told me to tell you." With that, he got up and left.

I did not sleep that night, the thought of what I was about to do to Rachel made me nauseous.

When the sun finally rose, and I heard Mother in the kitchen, I got up. I told her I was going to see Rachel today, so she made us a picnic. Then I made my way to Rachel's house. However, when I arrived in the yard, I saw Rachel run out, she did not see me as she ran into the woods. I knew something was wrong, so I followed her. As soon as she hit the tree line though, she seemed to get faster. I was stumbling over roots and trees, but she seemed to be gracefully floating.

For a while, I lost her in a sea of green, but I finally caught up to her, she told me about Matthew and I almost told her about 'The Hidden'.

Then, in only a few minutes, I broke her heart. I only prayed that someday I could repair the damage I had done. As I was finishing my little speech and I saw that she believed me, I felt my heart break also.

We had a picnic in the field. It was the worst picnic ever, and I was really starting to hate this beautiful little field. With its pretty flowers, its amazing color, and the worst part was the perfect woman that sat in the middle of it all.

"God why are you doing this to me?" I whispered when Rachel was far away. "I love her with all my heart; please don't take her away from me."

A little while later when Rachel and I were lying beside each other watching the clouds,

I prayed again. "What do I have to do to keep her?" I waited for an answer. I was not expecting to hear an audible one. _**"Tell her" **_I closed my eyes, I felt the sun on my face, and saw the redness of the sun shining through my eyelids. I felt the battle going on inside me, one side told me to tell her it was a lie, but the other told me to keep her safe from those dangerous people.

I turned my head to watch her; she was the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth. Every one knew it; I had heard so many men talking about her, many times I had to restrain myself from knocking people out.

**( (A/N) You will never guess which side of the fight inside him won. :)**

"I can't stand this any longer." I said as I got up from beside her. I strode over to the opposite side of the clearing, getting as far away as possible.

She looked at me and asked innocently, "What's wrong?"

I spun around and looked at her, she was almost glowing with beauty. I took the sight of her in, she had a dark green dress on, it came to her knees, with some kind of black lacy stuff covering her shoulders and ending at the hem of the dress.

**(Please bear with me, I am trying to go at it from a guy's view of clothing.)**

Her hair was twisting in all directions, and it was falling down her back in long dark brown ringlets. I could see her big brown eyes from where I was standing. She was what you would call enticing.

I walked with a steady stride around the edges of the clearing, she was in the very middle, so I was able to see her clearly the whole time. Yet I was far enough away that I had to move quite a distance to get to her lips. I started talking while I walked. "Can I ask you a question?"

She lifted her eyebrows, surprised that my tone was almost angry. "Anything." she answered in a small voice.

"Why is it that you are okay about me not loving you?" The words slipped out before I could stop them, I had not planned to say that.

She ran a hand through her hair, thinking. Then she said plainly. "I'm not."

That made me stop walking I stared at her. "You're… not?" My pulse seemed to multiply by a million.

She looked at me and frowned, "Of course I am not, but you have always been utterly altruistic when it comes to me, and if this is what you really want… then I will pretend, for your sake." She sincerely meant every word.

I walked slowly over to her side and lowered myself to the ground. "I'm so sorry it has to be this way. I love you… It's just in a different way than you think."_ Did it even sound like I truly thought of her like a sister? _I had no idea how to sound like I loved her in a different way. However, she seemed to believe it.

She smiled gently, and leaned toward me. My heart stopped, _Did she see that I was lying? _everything within me wanted to kiss her again, but it was not to be. She stopped leaning and whispered, "It's alright, really. Don't beat yourself up over a little thing like my silly feelings." then her head leaned all the way and landed on my left shoulder, I laid my head on her left shoulder. Wanting to cry about her, she had just made it clear she didn't care a bit weather I loved her or not.

_There in the middle of a beautiful field, sitting across from each other with their heads on each others shoulders. Were a man and a woman, who were deeply in love with each other. However, neither one knew the other loved them._

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><p><strong><em>AN_**

**_I answered some of your questions on this chapter I think._**

**_But now there are more questions. (As it should be.)_**

**_What is "The Hidden"?_**

**_Il ya plus a venir!_**

**_Please review!_**


	9. Old Friends

**Tada! New chapter has appeared out of thin air!**

**Huge thanks to Pokemonchen for the help and support!**

**And another big thank-you to DaughterOfNoOne for always reviewing!**

**Enjoy dearies!**

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><p>We lined up outside of Nick's house, preparing to say goodbye.<p>

My heart throbbed painfully, and I had a sick feeling in my gut. "This could be the last time I see him." This thought replayed in my mind like a broken record, stabbing me painfully in the heart area. "I guess I'd better make it quick, it will be easier that way."

He walked around our small gathering, giving out hugs and consoling the few that wept. For some reason that I cannot explain, he saved me for last.

I watched him as he stooped to hug his mother. She started tearing up as he pulled away. A pained look crossed his features. I am sure I am the only one that recognized it as pain though, I knew him too well.

He hugged her once more before straightening and turning to me. His face was devoid of all emotion, I stared into his eyes, daring him to tear up before me. Sadly, my resolve to be strong and impassive faltered when he lunged forward and wrapped his arms tightly around me.

I let a few tears escape in the safety of his shirt. However, when he started to release me, I quickly wiped the tears away before he could see them.

Nick pressed a gentle kiss on my forehead, and then whispered for my ears only, "I will miss you."

He turned on his heel and strode to the waiting horse, Nick mounted up then waved and with a smile he said, "Be back in a little while!" Every one laughed at this, he made it sound like he was just going hunting or something.

We waved until he was just a speck in the distance, then we all dispersed to our own homes words of comfort were directed towards Mrs. Jackson.

Matthew and I walked in silence all the way home, and then he excused himself to his room while I fixed a small supper for us both. I was not very hungry at all, but I knew Matthew would have a hissy fit if I tried skipping.

I soon escaped to my room to wallow in self-pity before bed. I heard Matthew talking to someone in the living room, but I did not care, even if it turned out to be that man from the other night. "We forgot to ask Matthew about that man." I thought sadly.

I lay down on the bed, squeezing my eyes tightly shut. A headache was pounding in my ears. As I lay there, I remembered that I had not uttered a word of goodbyes to Nick. I moaned as another one of the sickening pains erupted in my stomach. "Is this what it feels like to miss him terribly? Or is this the feeling of not being loved by him?"

Someone knocked on my door, "I swear if it's Matthew I'm going to rip his head off." I grumbled.

I grabbed my pillow and covered my ears with it, and sank deeper into the blankets. "Rachel, someone is here to see you." Matthew called through the door.

"Make them go away, I don't want to see them!" I screamed at him, I hoped whoever was out there heard me and took the hint.

I heard him sigh then his retreating footsteps. Soon I could hear him coming back, he opened the door and sat down on the edge of the bed. I made a disgruntled noise.

"Now now, that is not the way to welcome an old friend!" I jerked up, that was not Matthew's voice, in fact…

"Annabelle!" I squirmed out of the covers, and as soon as I saw her face I tackled her with a hug, successfully knocking her to the floor. She laughed. Her laugh was the best in the world. It was one of those girlish giggles, but there was always a snort at the very end of it.

I smiled at the sound, it brought back wonderful memories. "That's better." She said between giggles.

"Bell! What are you doing here? I mean, I thought you were in Quebet!" I said questioningly.

She smiled at my confusion, then answered playfully, "Andrew didn't want to miss your birthday!"

I made a face at her, "Yeah right."

"No, It's true! We missed you and Nick." She said seriously.

I whimpered a bit, that pain was back, except now it was more prominent. Her face turned into a worried look. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing really, Nick left a while ago for a war. You barely missed him."

She frowned at this, then she said, "Andrew's over there now, he won't be happy about missing him. After all, he hasn't seen his best friend in three years"

"Has it really been that long?" I said as I stood and pulled her up with me.

"Yes, the time seemed to fly did it not?" I smiled a bit at her accent.

"Annabelle?" We heard someone call from the front door. I burst out laughing, then grabbed Bell's hand and pulled her into my wardrobe, hiding from her brother.

We heard the heavy footsteps in my doorway, and Bell started to giggle quietly. But her laugh was contagious, soon we were both laughing uncontrollably.

That was when Andrew found us. When he opened the door to the wardrobe his face fell into an amused smile. My laughing soon died down as I looked at him, he was much more handsome than I remembered. His short blond hair was curling in all directions, unlike his sister's which was perfect long blond ringlets. And his green eyes seemed to be extra green.

"Ah, this brings back some dejavu." He said as he helped us out.

I stared at him, until he finally asked defensively, "What?"

"What the heck happened to your voice?" They laughed. The last time I had seen him his voice was still changing, and now it was a deep rumble. "And when did you get so tall?"

"Are you saying that the same thing didn't happen to Nick?" He said with a grin, looking hopeful.

I laughed, "No, he is taller than you I believe. I'm sorry that you two didn't get to see him." Then I remembered something, "Are your parents here?"

"No, they were busy back home, so we made this trip by ourselves." Replied Bell in her bouncy tone.

"Where are you staying?" I asked hoping they would stay here.

"Well, we were going to stay at The Inn, but it is owned by someone different now, and the cost is outrageous. Mrs. Jackson asked me to stay in Nick's room." Andrew paused, then looked at me hopefully, "And I was hoping you would let Bell stay here."

I grabbed Bell's hand, "And I was hoping she would ask to stay here." I said with a smile. "Do you have a trunk, or bags to bring in?"

She smiled sheepishly, then answered. "A trunk. I was hoping we could stay for a while. If that's okay…"

"That is perfect! I would love to have you!" I said excitedly.

Andrew went back to the Jackson house while Bell and I sat on a couch in the living room, bringing each other up to date. Bell looked around the room, then her eyes fell on a recent picture of me and Nick; I was on his back like a monkey, I was pointing to something in a tree, probably a squirrel or a bird, Nick had his signature grin on and he was looking at me like I was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Whoa, Nick is so handsome!" She said as she grabbed the picture. Something inside me twisted as she said this, but I brushed it off as missing him.

She talked for awhile, and I half listened. Though soon she got sleepy so we retired to my room.

When we were under the covers, she asked me a question. "So, what do you think of Andrew now?" I could hear the smile in her voice.

I wasn't sure what to answer. I was glad that she couldn't see my face in the darkness. "He's… grown up." was all I said.

"Grrr, you know that is not what I meant." She said exasperated.

I laughed. "What do you want me to say? I love him and his amazing good looks…?" I said sarcastically

She was silent . "Bell! You can't expect me to fall in love with your brother over night! That kind of thing takes time." I said the last part a bit softer.

She sighed, and took my hand. "I know Rachel. I just love you both so much. And I think you could make each other happy."

I shut my eyelids tightly, but a tear slipped out, I didn't think I could make anyone happy. Especially ever since Nick's confession.

I soon slipped into a deep sleep, hoping that life could somehow get easier.

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><p><em><em>**A/N**

**Finally a longer(ish) chapter!**

**It took me a while but it is up! :)**

**Please Review!**

***Reader clicks the button below***

**Yay!**


	10. Tension

…_**One Month Later…**_

I awoke as my cheek slammed against the cold hard ground, followed by the rest of my body. I lay there trying to catch the breath, and then I planted my hands flat on the floor, and pushed myself up enough to see over the edge of the bed. Annabelle's leg was lying right where I had been soundly sleeping not ten seconds ago. "The third time tonight." I grumbled sleepily.

As it turned out Bell was not the ideal sleeping companion; she digs her toes into my back, slaps me in the face, and pushes me off the bed. This all usually occurred before two in the morning.

"She's sleeping, it's not her fault." I had to keep reminding myself.

I finally gave up, grabbed my pillow and stumbled into the living room. I avoided the couch; every time I tried to sleep there, I dreamt of _him_. He had been gone for more than a month now; we had received no news from him, whatsoever.

I missed him terribly, of course, I had the company of Bell and Andrew, but it was not the same as being with Nick.

I thought of the first time I had gone hunting with him; it was a couple weeks after we met. Nick had told me that I would feel better if I went into the forest with him, of course, he was right. After that, he taught me how to use a bow, once I got good enough he allowed me to shoot a small doe. It was an amazing feeling that rushed through my being when he smiled approvingly at me after I shot right through its heart. After that, I did every thing I could to impress him.

I curled up on the hard rocker, and shoved the pillow behind me so the wooden arm of the chair would not dig into my back. I leant my head on my knees and closed my eyes tightly, fighting off unwanted tears. "You said you would be back in a week." I whispered. "Where are you?"

I could not get to sleep until around five in the morning, and only slept for thirty minutes, and then I was jolted awake by a light rapping on the front door. I slowly uncurled my cramped limbs, and then limped to answer the door.

I grabbed the knob and opened it to find a refreshed looking Andrew standing on the porch. I tried to smile at him, but it was unconvincing.

He chortled, and then asked in false innocence, "What happened to you?" I did not answer him.

He smiled and said, "I was wondering… do you know how to cook?" It was my turn to laugh; Mrs. Jackson had gone to look after a sick family last night, and that left Andrew with no breakfast this morning.

"That depends on what you will pay for a good meal." I said teasingly.

"Well, since I have the day off… I could go for a walk with you." He said with a wicked smile.

I laughed, remembering the younger, more mischievous Andrew. Back then when he said he wanted to go for a walk, what he meant to say was that he wanted to lead me into the middle of the forest, then run away; leaving me lost and alone. Usually Nick would come and find me though, so there was never any real danger.

He grinned as he remembered it also, "We all have changed a lot since then, haven't we?"

I nodded, just then his stomach rumbled loudly. "Well, you should come in. I will go get dressed, and then I can make you some breakfast."

"Sounds great." He said as he walked through the door. I walked to my room and as I was closing my door, I saw that he was strolling in the direction of the kitchen.

I slipped into my white shirt and trousers, then quickly French-braided my hair. I realized that Andrew and Bell had never seen me in this outfit before. I had been wearing dresses for that whole month. I looked back at the sleeping Bell, _"She looks so comfortable." _I thought grudgingly.

I walked into the kitchen, watching for Andrew's reaction to my clothes. Although he did not even notice until we were almost finished eating. He seemed distracted by something.

"Is that Nick's old shirt?" He finally asked with huge eyes.

I smiled, "Yeah, he gave me it awhile after you left. It is easier to move in than those frilly dresses. How did you know it was his?"

He reached over and tugged on the sleeve, then turned it a bit so that I could see the rip in the fabric; it was barely noticeable because of how well it was sewn. "He got caught in a tree one time, and his shirt ripped when he was trying to get unstuck. Mrs. Jackson sewed it up for him."

I laughed, "He realized I needed a change in clothing when Matthew kept yelling at me for tearing my dresses up."

"Well, it suits you." he said as his dimples showed.

His intent gaze made me feel embarrassed. "How about that walk you promised?" I asked.

The walk was quiet… and slightly awkward, until Andrew suddenly asked, "So, what has been going on with Nick lately?" He paused as he saw my confusion, "I mean I'm not going to get to see him for…" He threw a sideways glance at me, "…awhile. What has happened to him since I left?"

I sighed; this could turn into thin ice quickly if I did not watch what I said. It really would not be a good thing to tear up right now.

"Well, he grew about twelve feet taller." I started, "The town girls are all over him because of his good looks." He chortled at this, "His mother and I have finally taught him how to cook something other than burnt rocks. He is still an overly protective big brother to me. He broke his arm last spring…" I paused as I searched for something else that had happened to him that did not involve me.

"How did he break his arm?" He asked curiously.

I grimaced as I realized that even that story involved me. "We were sparing together, he was horsing around. I swung and the sword connected with his left arm, he cried out and fell to the ground. It was really terrifying; I was even more scared than him." I said with a small sad smile.

"You miss him?" He asked, studying my face.

"Of course, Nick is my best friend." I lied; he was much more to me than a best friend was. The recurring pain shot through my stomach, but I was hoping my face did not show anything.

"Oh…" Andrew said with a disappointed expression.

"I wonder if he is okay." I said in a more casual tone.

"I'm sure he is just stationed in a more isolated camp so he hasn't been able to write." He tried to convince me.

I smiled, cheered by this little bit of hope.

"Okay, back up some. You know how to sword fight? What else did you two hide from me?" He said teasingly.

"Oh, just the little facts like; I've killed a two-hundred-eighty pound grizzly with one arrow, I can take Matthew down with little trouble when sparing, I could take you down if I wanted, and I hate the color pink." His jaw dropped slightly.

I waited for the rest of his reaction, but we were interrupted by a voice behind me, "Good morning, Rachel, how are you today?" I turned to see Jonathan striding towards us.

"Jonathan, where have you been hiding these past weeks? I thought you had gone home without saying goodbye." I said with a smile as I hugged him.

"I was just coming to see you-" Andrew suddenly jerked on my arm, removing me from Jonathan, and placing me behind his own back.

"Who are you?" Andrew growled at Jonathan.

Jonathan's eyes narrowed, "I was just about to ask you the same." He said as he took a threatening step forward.

Both of their hands were balled into fists, but they both seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move.

I was extremely confused, I had never seen either of them act this way before; their muscles were tense, their words were sharp and cutting, and if looks could kill, they would both be lying dead at my feet. They had not even met before, so they could not hate each other yet... could they? Everything was happening so fast, I was getting dizzy just trying to keep up.

"I suggest you leave now, before you get hurt." Andrew said in a low menacing snarl.

I gasped, "Andrew! Jonathan! What is wrong with you two?" They both ignored me, and continued.

"Is that a challenge?" Jonathan spit back with venom in his voice.

Andrew chuckled humorlessly, "Only if you accept it."

I was getting scared, I grabbed Andrew's arm, and started frantically pulling him in the opposite direction. "Were going home."

He did not budge; in fact, they seemed to be getting closer to each other. They both looked ready to kill the other when I screamed, "Stop it, now!" They slowly turned towards me, and both of their eyes softened from hatred into a protectiveness. I was now on the verge of tears, "Andrew, we are leaving. Jonathan, I will see you later." My voice was thick as I said this.

They both sheepishly nodded, and we all continued on our ways.

"What was that?" I said angrily when we were out of earshot of Jonathan.

"It was just a little scrap; I wouldn't have let it get out of hand." Andrew told me exasperatedly.

"In my opinion it was already way out of hand." I said with a sigh.

With a chuckle he hung his arm possessively around my shoulders and said, "At least I won."

I raised a brow at him, "What was it even about?"

He studied me skeptically, "You don't get it, do you?"

I shrugged, "I guess not."

He pulled away from me, "When you do understand, let me know." For a reason I could not place my finger on, his tone and words hurt me.

* * *

><p><strong>Ooh, cliff-hanger :D<strong>

**It's up! It took a long time, but it's up! :)**

**Thank you all for being patient!**

**And for the birthday wishes, Ya'll are awesome.**


	11. Hunting

**Three Days Later…**

**Andrew and I had been stalking the buck for fourteen miles; finally, I watched its head lift from the grass as the perfect shot appeared. My adrenalin started pumping, just as every other time I was lining up for a kill. I pulled the string back to the corner of my mouth, aimed right above the left eye, and let go. It flew in slow motion, I could see every time it twirled in the air.**

**Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw a blade fly out of the clump of trees to my right I watched as it zinged past me, and sunk with a spurt of blood into the flesh near the buck's heart. Its legs fell out from under it, and my arrow landed in the tree that was behind its head.**

**I jerked the tip of my new arrow in the direction the knife came from, "There is someone in those trees." I whispered to Nick. When he did not answer, I glanced over my shoulder at him. I stood transfixed in that position, as I realized that Nick was not behind me. **

**I then remembered that Andrew was the one that was with me on this trip. He would not have known that Nick always stood protecting the left side of my back; my blind spot.**

**I shoved angrily through the bushes, towards the group of trees Andrew had thrown the knife from; I was fuming, he had taken my kill.**

**I only saw the leather of his jacket for a moment before I smacked into his chest. I felt myself falling, and I tried to catch myself. But instead of grabbing onto something, my wrist got caught on a long sharp thorn. I yanked my hand to my chest and braced myself for the impact.**

**There was an explosion as my head hit the ground, I watched the sky change colors and I briefly wondered where the loud noise came from. **

**Then I became aware of the burning pain. It started at the back of my head, and worked its way all the way through me. It felt as if my whole body was on fire. I heard someone scream, and I tried to get away from the pain. Finally I was pulled into darkness, and I could not feel anything, and I could not see anything.**

**Once in a while I heard Nick's voice calling me; it sounded worried, but it comforted me, and made me love the darkness even more.**

**I floated in the painless dream of nothingness, until I suddenly felt someone jerking on my hand. I looked around but saw only darkness. "Rachel, you have to get up." **

**I whimpered, Nick was asking me to leave the darkness, MY darkness, the one that took away all my pain.**

"**Rachel… please." The pain in his voice made me want to be with him to comfort him.**

**I slowly felt myself pulled away from my darkness. It felt like surfacing from water, I gasped as I felt the fire at the back of my head again. But it was the only place that hurt, unlike earlier.**

**I forced my eyelids open; the amount of energy that it took to do that one simple thing told me that something was wrong. I felt movement on the bed beside me; I turned my head to find Nick. **

"**You are awake!" He said with large eyes. **

**I gasped as I realized that it was truly Nick that was sitting beside me. From somewhere inside of me came a burst of energy, and I threw my arms around his neck. My whole body was shaking from the sobs. His arms wrapped me in one of his hugs that I had missed terribly while he was gone.**

**Then a thought popped into my head, "Am I dead?" **

**Nick's brown eyes locked with mine, "You are not dead, though you came extremely close to it." **

**He explained that I hit my head on a rock and had been unconscious for two days, one of those days it was questionable whether or not I would live. I had lost a lot of blood, both from my head and from the gaping rip in my wrist. **

**He said that I had screamed a lot, something about a fire. He also said that I had said his name. **

**When I explained that I had heard his voice, he smiled. "Out of all the people that were talking to you, you heard my voice only. I feel special." **

**I had to stay in bed for a few days; Mrs. Jackson said I needed to build up strength.**

**Andrew visited me often, apologizing constantly. When I ask him about the buck he said, "I had to leave it in the woods. You were bleeding to death, the choice wasn't hard."**

**Andrew seemed depressed and distracted, I was not sure why. He had saved my life, and his best friend was home. I did not understand him at all.**

**Nick did not come visit me again until the last day I had to be in bed. I had begun to think he was avoiding me, but what he told me made those thoughts disappear.**

"**I want you to come with me for a picnic in the woods. I have some things to tell you." I agreed to go with him, and I was okay with it, there was nothing that he could tell me that would hurt me. Because he had already said the only words that could break my heart.**

**When the time came for me to get ready I had trouble choosing something to wear. I would have just thrown on my normal pants and shirt, but they were covered in blood still. So I had to choose from my collection of dresses, and Matthew had not been stingy when he bought me these.**

**I finally chose a long green tunic that came to the middle of my thighs, and put some black leggings on underneath.**

**I began to pull my hair back into a braid but the back of my head stung from the stitches, so I left it hanging down my back.**

**When I finally emerged from my room I saw that Nick was already there; dressed in his usual hunting clothes. But something seemed different about him. I couldn't place a finger on it.**

**He held out his arms, and I walked into them. I held onto him tight, my nose was at his shoulder, I took a deep breath in and smelt his muskiness. I decided that I loved the way he smelled.**

"**You ready?" He asked.**

"**Yeah, where are we going?"**

"**It is a surprise." He said with a smile.**

**He led me through the forest, my mind was still groggy. So I still did not know where we were going until we got there.**

**He pushed back some vines, and I realized that he had been leading me to our field. It was a bitter sweet field, because in the same day we had an amazing picnic together, and he told me he did not love me. I smiled at Nick, I had tried to find this field again when he was gone, but it did not show itself to me. We sat down near the edge of the tree line, **

"**You had something you wanted to tell me?" I asked.**

"**Actually, I have several things to explain to you." He said as he gently took my hand.**

**His eyes were soaking up my face; I couldn't keep my eyes off of him either.**


	12. Elegant and Dangerous

"I would love to tell you the whole story, but I've sworn to secrecy. Matthew agreed with me, that you should know. Yet he also agrees it's not time, I think he would rather be the one to tell you." Nick was being a bit evasive in my book.

I was getting tired of people telling me that there was something they needed to tell me, and then they never tell me what it is. I finally decided to give up my curiosity, "So what you're saying is, you want to tell me something, but you can't." He nodded, seeming slightly saddened. "It's okay, I don't mind." I said with a smile.

Nick smiled back at me, "You're the best." He said, as he tightened his grip on my hand.

I felt like we had grown apart in the last year or so. We used to run around everywhere together, but now I am having trouble just coming up with something to say. I felt sick at the thought of us separating.

"Nick…" I hoped my expression showed what I needed to say to him, because my voice was failing me.

He moved slowly to sit closer to me; his arms went around my shoulders. At first, I tensed, but as I felt the warmth radiating off his body, I literally melted. I slumped against his side, and buried my face in his chest.

"What's the matter?" He asked after some time.

I sighed, "I just missed you while you were gone. And I realized that we aren't fitting together like we used to, something has changed between us." I felt him nod, and then he leaned his head on top of mine.

"I see." Was all he said, his tone suggested he was holding something back.

I was suddenly aware of how ridged he was, I hadn't noticed it before. I pulled away from him, but kept a firm hold on his hand. I studied his face, he glanced at me, then found a sudden interest in a wayward string from my tunic. He was definitely trying to hide something from me.

"What is it?" I asked.

His expression became very concentrated, as if he was trying to keep me out of his mind. "Nicholas Jackson, you tell me what's bothering you this instant." I cried playfully.

My smile faded as he looked up at me, his eyes were pained, and his lips were drawn down.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

The intensity of the pain in his voice surprised me. "What do you mean?" I asked, frightened.

"Rachel, you are the most wonderful woman in the world. You deserve someone far better than me, I'm truly sorry for what I'm about to do." I suddenly was afraid he was going to leave me. My insides began to tighten, and my hand held on to Nick's tighter than I thought possible. My eyes slid shut to block any tears and I braced myself for his words of goodbye. However, they didn't come.

I was suddenly feeling his lips on mine, his arms were wrapping around my waist and neck. I had an initial moment of shock before my lips started moving with his. My hands went to the back of his neck, securing him to me.

Every feeling of sadness I had ever associated with Nick washed away, as I realized that he must love me. He began pulling away, but I stopped him by slightly leaning on him, knocking him on his back, and falling with him.

He chuckled against my lips, and pulled me closer.

I would have kissed him forever if he had let me. However, something snapped a twig behind us, and he gently rolled me off his chest. I didn't care what was in the woods, it wouldn't hurt us, and so I didn't bother even looking in the direction of the noise. I watched Nick's face instead. He was smiling at me, but then he glanced up behind me and his face darkened.

I turned around and found Andrew standing at the edge of the trees, he was staring at Nick, a look of anger etched into his face.

I was wondering how long he had been standing there, when he looked at me and said, "Could I speak to you for a moment Rachel?" I looked to Nick, he had wiped all emotion off his face in the time I was looking away.

"I'll be right back." I told him, and then I stood and followed Andrew.

He walked several yards away from Nick. Farther than necessary, I thought.

"What was that?" He asked. I couldn't judge his thoughts, he was turned away from me, and his tone was fairly level.

I wasn't sure what to expect. One thing I had seen in the last few weeks was that Andrew got ticked off very easily, so I decided I should tread carefully, "Nick kissed me." I saw too late that this was not what I was supposed to say.

He spun around, "HE kissed YOU? That wasn't what I was seeing, seems to me you were doing an awful lot of kissing yourself." I wasn't sure what the problem was. Why would Andrew care if I kissed Nick or not? My heart did a weird little flutter as I remembered how close Nick had been.

"Yes, that's true. Why is it that it matters to you?" I asked slowly, like talking to a child.

He walked over to me and took my hand, "Because, I love you." I gasped; I had never, even in my wildest dreams thought that those words would ever come out of Andrews' mouth. My mind swam, and I couldn't think of anything to say.

"I didn't know it was coming, I only fully realized how deep I felt for you as I watched you lying there, almost drained of life. I've learned to love you, you have a quality that can't be found in anyone else."

Before I knew it, he was on one knee. "Rachel Elizabeth Tremont, daughter of Prince David Tremont, would you do me the honor of taking my hand in marriage?" What? None of that sentence made any sense.

I had a million thoughts run through my mind, but only a few stuck out;

First, my father was not a prince.

Second, my last name is not and never has been Tremont.

Lastly, I love Nick… not Andrew.

He saw my expression, and said softly, "It would be better for you to marry me." I felt a pang as I remembered Nick's earlier words. "_You deserve someone far better than me, I'm truly sorry for what I'm about to do._" He had apologized for kissing me.

"I wasn't planning on asking you so soon, but when I saw you kissing Nick…" He sighed, "I- I just can't lose you." He said.

When I started shaking my head no, he did the unthinkable.

He kissed me.

It wasn't like any of the kisses I had shared with Nick it had more force, don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad. It just wasn't from someone I loved.

I was so shocked at him kissing me that I couldn't move for about ten seconds. My mind was screaming at my limbs to move, but nothing happened. It was only when he pressed his tongue against my bottom lip that my legs and arms started functioning again. My hands went to his chest and I shoved, my feet moved at the same time, and I stepped away from him.

He stepped with me though, then took my hand and pressed it against his cheek. "I love you so much."

I pulled my hand away from him, and took a few steps back. He watched me cautiously.

I then turned, and simply walked away.

"Wait, Rachel!" Andrew called after me.

My feet started moving faster at his voice, and I was soon at a full run. I needed to get away from him. I knew I would be faster, so he wouldn't be able to catch me, I was glad of my special ability that came with being in the forest.

I broke through the trees where Nick was waiting. I almost stopped there, but when I first saw sadness in Nick's eyes, then heard Andrew running after me, I ran in the direction of home.

Safe, reliable home.

I burst through the front door and hurried past Matthew and Bell and into my bedroom. I locked my door, and collapsed against it. I wanted to cry, to let my confusion out through tears. But my eyes stayed dry.

I sat silently thinking about both of the men that were in the forest with me today. Everything that I am gravitated towards Nick. But there was something nagging at me, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was missing something vital.

I went over every fiber of my life, everything that made me who I am today. I searched, looking for the thing that was bothering me. But I came up short.

Both Bell and Matthew tried making me come out, but I ignored them.

I sat there so long that the sun had gone down when I finally came out of my internal searching.

I stood up, tried to collect myself, and went in search of Matthew. I found him, but his company surprised me.

I stepped into the living room to find Matthew, Andrew, and Nick, all sitting around having conversation with each other.

They all looked up when I shifted uncomfortably. Nick stood and offered me his seat, I didn't take it. I turned to Matthew and said, "Could you come with me for a walk?"

Matthew thought about it, then said, "No, I have some pressing matters to attend to. But I'm sure these gentlemen would be happy to accompany you." He said this in what could only be described as a jolly tone.

I glared at him. How could he do that to me? If he knew what had happened in the woods he would not have proposed such an absurd idea. "I... I don't think it necessary-"

I was interrupted by Matthew, "Nonsense, you will go with them, I believe you all have some things to sort out." He said as he looked around the room pointedly. So Matthew did know then. I made a mental note to get Matthew back for this later.

Andrew made a move to get my shawl, but Nick was there already, wrapping it around my shoulders.

I had a realization, "Matthew, where is Bell? I think I'm going to ask her to come with us." Moans escaped from both Nick and Andrew's mouths. I wondered what they had against her.

I'm afraid that I hadn't paid very much attention to her for a long while. But whenever we had been together, she was either talking nonstop, or trying to kill me in my sleep. "I find her company rather nice." I said, defending my friend.

"It's not her company, it's the way she acts like a love sick fool when Nick is around. I mean she's my sister and all, but it's the most annoying thing ever." Andrew said in disgust.

"Not only that, she's been following me about like a lost puppy!" Nick agreed.

"She's at the Jackson house, looking for Nick no doubt." Matthew told me with a grin.

"Thank you." I said gratefully. I wasn't sure that I was going to take her with us, the thought of watching another girl swoon over Nick made me feel sick… and slightly jealous.

It was a nice night, the wind was softly blowing, and the moon was large and bright.

I walked in front of Nick and Andrew, trying to put some distance between us. My mind wandered off, I strolled aimlessly around the town, not bothering to keep track of where we were, and I knew Nick would be able to lead me back home.

I only stopped when I realized that I was in front of my old house, the one that I had lived in before my father died. I hadn't gone back to it since Matthew took me in. No one had lived in it since then, and I was positive that all my fathers' things would be right where I had left them.

My feet started moving towards the gate, I finally felt ready to face my father's death, after so many years.

I was pulled to a stop by a pressure on my arm. I turned to Nick, his eyes held concern, "Are you sure?" He asked gently.

"I need to do this." I said definitely.

He nodded. Then turning towards the house he said, "Do you want us to come with you?"

I nodded, and started walking up the path to the door. I had my hand on the knob, I felt Nick standing behind me, and I reached for his hand.

I pushed open the door, revealing a dark interior. "Do you have your matches?" I asked Nick. He put a box in my hand, and I moved to the candleholder I knew would be on a table to my left. I struck the wooden match a few times before it took, the light flooded our side of the room. There was furniture covered with white sheets, and old portraits of my parents and grandparents were on the walls.

Andrew wasn't in the room, I noticed, "Andrew stayed outside, he said this was your business and he didn't want to intrude." Nick said as he saw me looking around for him.

"That was sweet of him." I replied. I picked the candle up and lit one of the wall mounts, and one more portable candle. Then I handed one to Nick and continued on up the stairs with mine in my hand. I went straight to my father's room, the place I knew would be the hardest.

I lit another candle by the door and yanked the white sheet off my father's desk, coughing as dust tried to crowd my lungs.

As I looked around, I realized that I had nothing from my father. Other than a house full of bittersweet memories, I wanted something that I could keep with me forever, something that resembled my father's bravery, and love. I looked in the closet, but decided trying to keep his clothes would be silly. The desk had nothing of value, just some old papers.

My eyes landed on the trunk at the bottom of the bed, I tried the lid but it was stuck, "Nick, could you come help me?" I called.

He appeared beside me as I tried once more to open the maple trunk. It finally gave way when Nick added his strength to mine. The trunk smelled strongly of my father. In the corner was a spilled bottle of his cologne, I smiled and picked it up.

My dad's old hunting jacket was at the top of the trunk, it still smelled like him, I could even see him walking out the door in it. I decided that that was the keepsake I was looking for.

"Rachel, look at this." The whispered words brought me back to the present.

Nick pulled out something long and narrow, it was carefully wrapped in a red velvet cloth. He pulled the cloth away, revealing an intricate leather scabbard embellished with red jewels. The candle light flickered off the rubies making them dance in a stunning way.

"I don't remember this." I whispered.

Nick tugged on a leather cord at the hilt of the sword, and slowly pulled the scabbard away.

Ominous, beautiful, threatening, magnificent, sinister, elegant, powerful. None of those words could even begin to describe the sword before me. It was coal black, but it reflected the light just like a silver sword would have.

I could somehow tell it was my father's sword, even though I had never seen it before. It portrayed my father so much, it felt as if he was right there with me in that room.

Nick abruptly slid the sheath back on, and stood up with it. I looked up at him, confused, then I stood slowly, along with my father's jacket and cologne.

"Are you ready to go?" Nick asked with his back to me.

"Yes." I said as I smelled what was left of the cologne.

Nick rewrapped the sword in the velvet and began putting it back in the trunk. "No, Nick lets take it back, there's something about it… I'm not sure what it is, I just feel like I need that sword." I tried making him understand.

He reluctantly nodded, then carried it for me as we left the house.

When we stepped outside, we were greeted by an interesting sight; all three Redmonds were standing with Andrew, talking.

"Rachel, Nick, It's so nice to see both of you again!" Beatrice cried, but her eyes were glued to Nick.

I glanced at Nick to see his reaction to her, he was smiling. That was the worst thing he could have been doing.

I felt my jealous side coming out, "Hello, Beatrice, Mrs. Redmond, Jonathan, how are you?" I asked as I went to Jonathan for a hug. He placed a playful brotherly kiss on the top of my head, I wasn't sure exactly when we had gotten close enough to hug each other without awkwardness, but I was perfectly comfortable around him. Maybe it was when I had told him I was in love with Nick.

I realized then that three men had kissed me in one day and I blushed.

When we pulled away from each other, we found all eyes on us. I inwardly cringed at the troubled look on Nick's face. Mrs. Redmond's expression was complete shock, Beatrice's was slight surprise but mostly delight, and Andrew's was hate.

I smiled, "We were just out for a walk, and we're going back your way, why don't we walk together?" I asked, I needed to talk to Jonathan, and I didn't think I could do that without a distraction for Andrew and Nick.

Everyone seemed to pair off automatically, Mrs. Redmond and Andrew were in a deep conversation at the front of our line, Beatrice was glued to Nick's arm behind them, Jonathan and I brought up ther rear.

The reason I had wanted to talk to Jonathan, was that he was the only one that hadn't hinted he knew about the secrets Matthew had been keeping from me.

I began to tell him everything that had happened that day, and I didn't leave anything out.

About a fourth of the way home, Nick started getting suspicious of us, he kept looking back at us with these expressions that only he could get away with. I decideed that he needed more of a distraction, I hoped that Bell was still at the Jackson house, we were passing by it right as Nick was looking back for the hundredth time. I told Jonathan to stay there, then I ran inside and came out being dragged along by Bell, she was excited to be walking by Nick I guess.

She was soon talking Nick's ear off, so I felt more at ease talking to Jonathan. I finished the story by the time we reached my house. He looked at me thoughtfully, then said, "It's getting late. Do you want to go for a longer walk alone? Or do you want me to come back tomorrow so we can talk?"

"I won't be able to sleep at all if I have all these thoughts crowding my mind anyway, so let's go for that walk." I decided quickly. I hurried inside, to explain to Matthew where I was going to be and to drop off my father's stuff, then I said goodbye to the rest of our group.

Nick watched Jonathan and me closely as I said goodbye. I wished that I could explain to him why I was with Jonathan and not him.

They left Bell at my house, and Andrew and Nick took the Redmond women home, since I was stealing Jonathan from them.

When we were finally alone and walking down the street, Jonathan started trying to help me sort out my mess.

"How long have they been acting like they have a secret?" He asked.

"For as long as I can remember really, but I've only really noticed it in the last year."

"What do you think they're hiding from you?"

"I don't know, none of it really points in a sensible direction."

"So maybe it isn't something sensible, maybe it's something completely outrageous. I know they love you Rachel, and I'm sure that whatever reason they are hiding this from you is a good one. I bet they are just trying to keep you safe." He said it all very softly. "Now, what is the most outrageous thing you can think of that they would try to protect you from?" He asked with a smile as he cast a sideways glance at me.

"The most outrageous thing they would try protecting me from? What about you? Andrew seemed to think you were dangerous to me somehow." I said teasingly.

"Yes, that was… curious." He said as he raised his right brow.

I laughed, "I think I finally understand what it was about."

"What's that?"

"Me." I said simply.

"Ah, yes. Attraction can do strange things to people." Jonathan said.

"I know." I said with a tired sigh.

The silence carried as we both thought about things.

Then suddenly he stopped walking, I looked at him, his face showed shock, but it also showed he was trying to calculate something.

"What is it?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

"I- I think I figured it out."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, getting worried.

"What were Andrew's exact words when he was proposing?" He asked urgently.

"Umm, I think he said something like-"

"No, Rachel, I need the exact words. Not 'something like'." He said, his voice was rising, like he was nervous or something.

"Okay, he said, _"Rachel Elizabeth Tremont, daughter of Prince David Tremont, would you do me the honor of taking my hand in marriage?" I was thinking at the time that none of that sentence made any sense at all." I told him._

"_Rachel, I've figured out what the outrageous thing is." I urged him on with a nod. "You're a princess!" He cried._

_I stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing, "Jonathan, I think you need some sleep. That idea is extremely outrageous." _

"_Rachel." His tone was serious. "Think about it, everything is fitting together, and it looks an awful lot like you, your highness, are royalty." _

"_Okay, I'll consider the possibility, but I really think your imagination is running wild." I told him._

"_That's all I wanted, I think my job is done here. You want to head on back?" He asked._

"_Wait a minute, you still aren't finished solving all my problems." I said with a smile._

_He thought for a moment, "Well, I think you should just talk to Matthew, don't let him wiggle out of it. And for your relationship issues… leave those lovey dovey boys for a more mature, less emotional man." He said as he flexed his muscles, and deepened his voice._

_We both looked at each other for a moment, then broke out laughing. _

_After we contained ourselves, he said, "Seriously though, just do what your heart tells you to. I know, it sounds foolish, but I think it's the best advice I can give."_

_He walked me home and we talked of things that didn't matter a bit, that was the best part of my day, talking about something that didn't matter._

_We got to my house around midnight, the lateness surprised me, it hadn't seemed like we had talked that long. Jonathan went in with me, he said he wanted to apologize to Matthew for keeping me so late, I told him it wasn't necessary, but he insisted. _

_I opened the door and noticed all the lights were still on, so Matthew was surely still awake._

"_Matthew?" I called._

"_In here." His voice came from the living room._

_I found him sitting across from Nick, apparently he had come back after taking the women home._

_I paused in the doorway, and Jonathan accidentally bumped into me because of the sudden stop. "Sorry." He apologized, before stepping around me and sitting himself down on the same couch as Nick. "I didn't get a chance to talk with you earlier Nick. How have you been? Rachel told me you went off to that big war?" Jonathan asked._

"_It's been a while Jonathan. Yes, I went to the war, and almost got killed a few times, I even have the scars to prove it." Nick seemed to relax some, but I tensed at his words. I hadn't even thought to ask about the war, so many other things had been crowding my mind._

_Images of swords clashing and blood being spilled flashed though my head._

_I was pulled out of my gory thoughts by Jonathan's low whistle. I looked up to find Nick sitting with his shirt off, his was back to me. If I had a weaker stomach I certainly would have either thrown up, or passed out at the pink mutilation across Nick's back. _

_I suddenly felt as if it was my scar, I could feel pain searing in a sharp line across my back. I gasped aloud and had to look away, they all three turned towards me. I felt tears coming, I had not even considered Nick getting hurt. _

_I closed my eyes, trying to fight the tears, when that failed I turned and rushed to the kitchen._

_I sat against one of the cabinets, shoulders shaking, tears streaming down my face and neck, soaking the front of my shirt._

_Every time I felt like I was almost under control, blood would flash across my vision, then I would see Nick's scar. _

_I didn't even hear any footsteps, but soon a strong arm was wrapping around my shoulder, pulling me to a chest. I didn't fight, I wasn't sure who it was, but I hugged back anyway. I needed to just be held at that moment._

_Nick's voice was the one that came, and my arms tightened around him as soon as it did. "I'm sorry." His voice was strong, yet it was soothing and gentle too. _

"_What..." I had a second where I couldn't talk, "What for?" I finally got out._

"_Everything." He moaned. "I'm sorry that you had to see that scar, I'm sorry I wasn't able to write while I was gone, I'm sorry I didn't tell you everything when I had the chance, I'm sorry that I'll never be good enough for you, I'm sorry you're hurting, I'm sorry I lied, I'm sorry I kissed you, I'm sorry that I have a secret, and I'm sincerely sorry that I… I love you." _

_I couldn't breath, due to both how tight he was holding me, and the fact that he had just told me he loved me._

"_I love you too." I whispered._

_He pulled away, seeing if I was serious or if I was just saying it without thinking. _

_So it was sitting on the kitchen floor that we first confessed our love for each other._

_He slowly lowered his lips to mine. That kiss was by far the best of them all, because we weren't hiding any love from each other._

_It was my stomach that interrupted us then, as it growled. I started pulling away, but this time it was him who stopped me. He did much the same thing I did that morning, but he was pushing me up against the cabinet so that I couldn't get away._

_I smiled and kissed him back patiently, the second time my stomach protested, he let me go with a sigh._

_I smiled sheepishly, "I haven't had a thing to eat all day." _

"_Well, we can't have you starving on my watch." He said, before grazing my lips with his._

_I ate quickly, I really couldn't help how fast I ate, and I was famished. _

_We moved to the living room when I was finished, and found that Jonathan had gone home and Matthew had gone to bed. They had left the lamp burning, so I sat on the couch beside Nick. We talked for a few more hours, it wasn't the same as when we were younger, but I liked it better this way._

_I fell asleep with my head on Nick's shoulder, as I closed my eyes I briefly wondered if I had done that before, it felt like dejavu._


	13. The Truth Is Out

I opened my eyes, and almost jumped back at the sight of Nick's sleeping face just inches from mine. I snuggled closer and wrapped my arms around him, knowing that once he was awake I probably would not be able to be this close to him for a long while.

It reminded me of the last time I had woken up in Nick's arms, then I had freaked out, but now I felt more than comfortable there. Everything had changed the second we confessed to each other. Things Nick had done in the past made more sense now. Things I had done in the past… seemed more foolish.

The moment I told Nick I loved him was the same moment that I really realized that I would never be able to live without him. So Nick had found out that I love him at the same time I had realized it myself. Excitement that Nick actually loved me back coursed through me. The feeling was almost addicting.

I buried my face in the front of his shirt; never wanting to let him go.

A deep moan escaped his lips. I pulled back, afraid I was hurting him. He was asleep, but his face was twisted in agony.

I couldn't watch him in pain like that, "Nick, wake up. You're having a bad dream." I whispered as I gently rubbed his jaw line.

Instead of just opening his eyes like I expected, he sat bolt up, almost knocking me off the narrow couch.

I watched the muscles in his shoulders relax as he looked at me. "Good morning." I said quietly.

I cleared my voice when he didn't say anything. "You were having a bad dream…" I didn't explain any further, he was making me nervous, the way he was staring.

"What's today's date?" He suddenly asked.

I watched him, unsure what he was talking about. "It's the nineteenth, why?"

He studied me, "July nineteenth…" He said slowly.

My face broke into a smile, "Oh! It's my birthday!"

He nodded almost in a sad way, then he was suddenly, urgently, kissing me. His arms held me so tight I was literally having trouble breathing.

He let go and stood, I stood with him, "What's the matter?" I asked worriedly.

"I have some business to take care of, you should go speak with Matthew. I believe he has something to say." He sounded hurt, but I hadn't even done anything.

"Are-"

He interrupted me, "You really need to talk to Matthew now." Then he walked out, leaving me with the feeling that whatever Matthew would tell me would be the worst thing in the world.

I stepped hesitantly into Matthew's room, he was sitting at his desk in the corner writing something on a sheet of paper. "Matthew?" I asked.

He turned towards me, "Good morning Rachel." He said as he stood and gave me a warm fatherly hug, "How's my birthday girl?"

"Fine." I said slowly.

"What's the matter?" He said as he sensed my unease.

I sighed, "Nick said you have something to tell me."

"Oh." He said, looking away from me.

"If it's really that terrible, you should just do it quick, like pulling off a bandage." I said, bracing myself for something terrible.

"We should sit down; this could take awhile." He said, pulling me into the living room.

He took a deep breath, "This goes back to before you were born, even before the Great War started.

As you know, there used to be a king and queen for every country, most of them had many sons and daughters.

The countries lived in harmony, every one was happy. That was before Queen Olafa began the war that wiped out most of the worlds population." He rubbed a hand over his face.

"She had what some people call a silver tongue, she planted lies everywhere she went, turning rulers against each other with only a few words.

Quarrels started up all over the world, it began with the smaller kingdoms. But once she realized her power she started visiting larger kingdoms.

She was a beautiful woman, her husband had died, some say she killed him, but no one ever found out the truth about that.

She thought that if all the other kingdoms were at war she could gain something from it.

But soon the other rulers figured her out. Some attempted to assassinate her, she lived through every effort. She figured out which ones wanted her dead, and she sent her own assassins, and instead of just ending the kings' lives, she killed their heirs to the throne.

The nations rose up in a flurry of hatred and pain, so much blood was shed in that decade, no one even knew why the wars were going on, they just knew that their husbands, and fathers, and sons were going to their death.

The people of Olafa's kingdom were loyal to her for some reason I can't explain, and when she was finally killed, they took up what they thought was their duty. They began killing off more of the royals.

They were soon defeated, but there were still rebellious countries that had supported Queen Olafa. They kept up the wars with the other countries, and the Great War is still going on, to this very day.

The rulers that had more authority than most others got together after Olafa died and declared a council to be assembled so that things like this could not happen again.

They decided that the kings with the largest kingdoms would make up the council. Once they tasted the power they had over all other royals though, they turned into the bad guys.

The council started to force all royalty to act a certain way, and they engaged their own children to other wealthy princes and princesses. If any one of them resisted, or had a different personality than that of a "normal" royal, they would execute them.

The ones that were executed were usually the ones that showed love and kindness. They quickly learned… after their friends and family were put to death. And whenever the council was around, the royals would act like cruel, spoiled people. They would freeze their hearts, so that no emotions showed. But behind the councils back they were passionate and, most of the time, loving.

The council would always fake some sort of poisoning or riding accident, so that the public wouldn't have any reason to rebel.

Some of the braver princes began formulating a plan; a way that the mistreated royals could be free of the council. They started with some of the younger royals, the ones that wouldn't be missed as much as the older ones. The first one was a young princess, the princes faked her death and dressed her in peasant clothes, then they sent her to an orphanage. Of course they kept an eye on her, but they had succeeded in freeing her. That was all that mattered.

They began sending older children to different countries, so that they would not be recognized.

One of the princes' father was on the council, he found out that his son was meeting up with other princes and he executed him on the charge of _being suspicious_.

The other princes were severely angry at that one king, they had loved that prince as a brother.

They decided that it was too risky to be meeting in their own royal clothes, so they put on disguises and went to a hideout deep in some deserted forests.

They began a rebellion, they had no idea then that they would be the saviors, not only of almost all the oppressed royalty, but also many civilians lives would be saved because they had decided not to just stand by.

These were the best swordsmen in the world. It was an infamous group, they aimed to make the council think that they were just another small group of thieves and bandits, so that no more attention was directed their way than they needed.

There were four of them, they began 'kidnapping' the royals that wanted to be free, then they would send them to hide until someone could stabilize the situation with the council. They called the free royals "The Hidden".

The royal guard could never catch them, no one knew who they were. They had completely fooled the council, they had been thinking that there was a terrible sickness going through the royal families, but in truth every single one they thought was dead was actually in hiding.

One of the rebel princes fell in love with a princess he had rescued, they got married in secret, the only witnesses at the wedding were the other three princes, and the princess' best friend. They lived right under the councils noses, they had to change their names but that was the easy part. They had a beautiful daughter after about a year.

The council men died off slowly, most of them are dead now, and The Hidden princesses and princes are aloud to come out of hiding to rule their countries." Matthew watched me as he finished his story.

I had never heard that version of the beginning of the Great War.

"How could any human being kill his own son? And what was wrong with Olafa's mind? Was she insane? What happened to the other three princes? I've seen one of the council men before, he didn't look like he was capable of killing anyone. I wish I could have been there to beat those evil people up." I ranted as I glared at the wall.

"I myself don't know how anyone could betray their own family, especially enough to kill one of them. But that man was full of hate ever since he was a child. I believe Olafa would have been insane if anyone had taken the time to examine her closely. On the subject of the princes you will soon find out. The councilman that you saw actually is very nice, so were his brothers… their father is not though." Matthew explained.

"It would be sort of sad to be one of The Hidden now, just knowing that all of your family and friends were killed for being normal… that would be torture."

"You are not helping me at all." He said with a sigh. "Your question earlier, about the princes? Well, your father was the one that married the princess. And I am one of them also. Nicholas's father was the third one. And the fourth one is the man you heard me talking to that night. The one I told you was just a friend. He was the prince that died's brother." He told me quickly, waiting for me to see the truth.

"You were the baby at the end of the story Rachel. Today is your eighteenth birthday, your parents wanted you to be kept in the dark until today."

"So, you're saying that Nick and I are royalty? Does Nick… know?" I asked dumbly.

"Yes, Nick has known for several years now. Your parents felt that you would be able to handle what was coming your way… once you were older." The way he said it sent shivers down my spine.

"Wait! What's coming my way?" I said, as the feeling of fear overtook me.

"Your father knew he was going to die when he left for that war, he was set up, they told him that he either fought or they would kill you, his daughter. He didn't back down. Nick's father went into the war trying to save him. The council had found out that we were the ones that helped The Hidden escape. They were trying to get us back for it, and they succeeded. My punishment was living." He said painfully.

Tears were falling from my eyes, my father had sacrificed himself for me, "What is going to happen to me?" I asked through my tears. The whole thing was finally sinking in, my world was flipped upside down.

"Nick was also forced into the war, but apparently they had underestimated him, and he survived. The murderer, that killed not only his own son, but also your parents, Nick's father, and countless others, is in **your** country, oppressing **your** people." Matthew said gravely.

"I have a country." I realized.

"Only David's child can get it back from him, it is rightfully yours. He doesn't know that you are still alive, he has been thinking this whole time that you died in an accidental fire. That's why he hasn't added you to his list of slaughters yet." Matthew had said it all bluntly, the time for secrets was over.

"He's a monster."

"Well then, what are you going to do about it?" He asked.

I closed my eyes tightly, hoping my anger towards that man wouldn't explode all at one time as I calmly said, "Matthew, I think I'm going to go on a little trip. Care to join me?"

Matthew smirked in answer, "I'd be delighted to."

**A/N**

**New chapter is up! Finally.**

**Okay, you guys, I'm sooo sorry it took so long to update!**

**I had internet issues.**

**Anyway, its up now. I hope you all enjoy it.**

**Please leave a review!**

**I seriously love you guys.**

**Happy independence day!**


	14. Fighting Fear

"Wait a second, back up." Nick said in a stern voice as he glared down at me. "You mean to tell me that you're planning on marching up to the man that killed both of our fathers, and asking him to give you your land back?"

I shrank away from his angry shout, "I… I just thought-"

"Rachel, Matthew wouldn't plan it that way. I'm surprised he didn't realize that that's what you were thinking, he would have told you otherwise. He knows that that is the most dangerous path you could possibly take right now." He walked over to his shelf, moving things around searching for something, then he laid a rolled up paper on his desk.

"We need to keep you hidden from the elder for as long as we can. If he thinks you're dead then it will be easier going when we are trying to take the throne."

"How will we 'take the throne'? It seems that the only other way (other than asking for it) would be by a war." Then it dawned on me, that's exactly what they had been planning all this time.

Nick nodded when he saw the expression on my face, "We'll have to take the small cities first, whether by force or by peace. That means we have to have an army. Most royalty that is back ruling already will give us their troops because they have been burned at one point or another by the Elder. But some countries will be bribed by him, really, its all a matter of picking sides. Lets just pray that our side is bigger."

"So… what do I do now?" I asked.

He studied me, "We won't be able to take the first city until we have all the supplies and people. We should have that in about five to seven weeks. You should be training to fight in that time."

Nick had taken on a side that I had never seen before, there was an unfamiliar glint in his eyes, a different lift in his shoulders, a grim determination radiating from his very being, a set to his jaw that suggested he could kill, yet a pain in his eyes that suggested that he hates the fact that he can kill so easily. This was the war side of Nick, this was the Nick that had been born to be a leader and a fighter.

As I studied him, I absentmindedly mumbled, "I already know how to fight."

His eyes softened as he moved around the desk to me, taking me in his arms, he whispered, "You may know how to fight. But it's different when you are fighting with me than when you are fighting in a real war. People are coming at you from all different sides, and they never show you any mercy, people are dieing all around you. You can't make one wrong move, or you could be beheaded. Its not planned lunges from a friend, its mad, bloodthirsty people, randomly swinging a heavy sword at your neck… On second thought, Matthew was wrong, you shouldn't be out there fighting, you should wait here for us while we fight."

He hugged me tighter. I knew he had been imagining the battle grounds with me standing in the middle of it all, I knew it because of the way fear was swirling in his eyes.

I wrapped my arms around him, as I did he grabbed a fistful of the back of my shirt, pulling me closer to him, definitely never letting me go. I sighed, letting him share the heavy burden that had been dumped on my shoulders, as I leaned against him. I tilted my head up, "Can I have a kiss now?" I said in a tired child's voice.

He chuckled as he leaned his head down, he ran his lips gently across mine, teasing me. I whimpered when I couldn't quite get a full kiss each time he brushed across. "Nick…" I whispered impatiently.

He laughed, then leaned down the slightest inch more, and caught my bottom lip between his teeth. I sucked in a breath, not expecting the sudden warm tingling that went from my stomach, to the tips of my fingers, to my lips.

I shivered involuntarily, he chuckled again before he let go of my lip only to press his own lips where his teeth had just vacated.

He pulled back just enough for us both to get air, he still hadn't let go of my shirt, "I love you so much Rachel, don't ever leave me." He said as if it was an order.

I looked up into his eyes, "Never." I said, trying to put the same solidity into my eyes as he had in his, but I'm sure I failed miserably.

He just chuckled, "So… you ready to train soldier?" He asked playfully.

"Yes sir!" I promptly saluted then spun around on my heal and stalked stiffly to the door.

"You wanna know where you need to go before you start wandering aimlessly through the streets?" He asked, making me freeze, with a wince at my dullness.

"Uh yeah, that information might be useful at one point or another." I said without turning around, so he wouldn't see the blush creeping up my cheeks.

I heard him unroll the paper on his desk, I spun around once I had gained control over my color, "Your first lesson is with…" He skimmed down some kind of list, "Matthew Garrett!" He said in a surprised tone.

One of my eyebrows rose with a question, I strode forward to get a better look at what the paper was, I gasped as I realized the depth of the information on it, It must have taken years to make this. It was a game plan, to put it plainly. It had maps drawn out on it, it had lists of names, it had times and dates, army strategies, it listed which forests had enough food for an army to survive a week on.

It went on and on. But the most perplexing thing I saw, was my face in the bottom right hand corner, the paint was fading, suggesting that it had been done a long time ago, but my face was so up-to-date in this picture, it looked as if it could have been painted that very morning.

Nick caught me staring at it and said, "That was the picture your father painted two days before he went to war. He told my parents about how an army was going to rise up… So many people have added to this since then. People that knew what was coming, and knew that you were going to be the only chance at freedom for the world. This will affect not only your country, but also every other country in the world. Theomore has been ruling for far too long." He smirked, "Theomore, your reign of the world is now over." As he said that it felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.

I backed up from him swiftly, "I-I have to go… um… go find Matthew, you know, for training." I said a I started stumbling backwards, I ran into one of the bookshelves, knocking some books off. Some of them hit my head before they fell onto the ground with a quick series of thuds.

The pain jolted my legs awake, I jerked around to the door, "I'll be back… don't even bother this time." I said as he began to follow me.

"But-" I cut off his protests by slamming the door, hoping he would get the hint.

I jerked out of the way of Mrs. Jackson, she was carrying a trey of steaming cups. She flinched, expecting me to run into her, spilling hot beverage all over both of us. But I didn't, "You've gotten quicker with your reflexes dear!" She exclaimed, but I was already out the door.

As I ran I realized that this is what I always did. I always ran, always shoved people away when things got a little too intense. I always hid from the problem, never facing it. I had always decided to ignore the rest of the world when it wasn't forming to my every wish. I was a true princess, on both the inside and out. I was a selfish idiot. I also realized that all the other times I had ran was for foolish reasons. This was the first time I ran, when it could actually cost peoples lives. All the other time had been about me, this one, I was afraid, afraid of failing. Afraid that if and when I failed, I wouldn't get another chance.

I was almost to the forest, I was only a short sprint to it, when I pulled up short. I forced my feet to turn me around, all of my insides were screaming at me, "STOP! Turn back around! You have NO idea what you are doing! If you choose to go back you will die! You're to scared to die! Stop, right now! You don't have to do this, you can go back to living your own life, you can just be happy. You don't have to kill anyone, you don't have to die for anyone. You're allowed to be selfish!" I determinedly took a few steps, "I'm already dead." I replied, with a grim smile.

I had to force each step that I took, I was _scared_. More scared than I had ever been in my whole life. I _had_ to face Nick. I had to apologize for all the times I ran away.

But my feet planted themselves in front of his porch. I couldn't move. My inner fight with myself had come to a draw. My fear had ruled out my determination, yet I couldn't run away still.

My fingers were the first to go numb. The fight in me was too much. The numbness stole through me, when it reached my eyes, things faded into black, I wasn't standing in front of Nick's house anymore. I actually couldn't remember if I was standing at all, I couldn't remember if I had gone into the forest or if my conscience had won out. I couldn't remember if this morning had just been a dream, or if it was real. I couldn't remember if I had even gotten off the couch from beside Nick yet.

"Rachel Tremont" A voice echoed through my head, I briefly remembered how Nick had woken me from my faint a time not so long ago by calling my name.

"Nick?" I replied, hoping it would reach my outer body enough for Nick to know that I was okay.

"Rachel… The name sounds familiar. Was she one of my wives?" The voice was definitely not Nick's. It was full of venom, and it had an accent that I hadn't ever heard.

"She was a daughter of one of the traitors, Sire. David Tremont's daughter." A voice squeaked.

"And? Why are you bothering me with this? I have more important business to attend to." Light was filtering through my vision by then, and I could see vague figures across the unfamiliar room.

"She- She's alive, she has an army, a small one, but it has done a lot of damage. And she's leading them here. Other armies are attacking from different directions, Sire. She's taken Burgrint, Fairnnia, Shaolle, Chinas, Torsh, and Port Frounth. That was all taken by her army of seven hundred, she's at the lead. The other armies are progressing at a slower rate than hers is, and they have more men than she does… two thousand each." A short chubby man told a tall elegantly evil man.

I looked around, the room I was in was black, but the candle light bounced off the walls. The ceiling was too high to see, and the strange reflections of the candles made the room have more of a ominous feeling to it.

The tall man laughed, sending chills of fear tingling down my spine. "A princess? That's what you are worried about? Just send an army of three-thousand, really Rupert, you are quite dim aren't you?"

"But your majesty, their numbers haven't dwindled in the least, and we have already sent out at least four armies with four-thousand soldiers strong. They have magic on their side, I'm sure of it. They would not have been as impenetrate-able." There was fear in the short mans eyes.

"Send out ten-thousand then! I don't care, just do what it takes to stop her! She's just like her father… And she can be beat… just like him. Make sure she isn't capable of doing the same amount of damage." I caught a glimmer of something, something that looked an awful lot like fear.

Suddenly everything went black, and I drifted for a moment before the light slowly came back. But this time I was in front of Nick's house. I gasped, then ripped away from the spot, through the front door.

"Nick!" I cried out.

He swung the door to the study open, he had a look of surprise covering his face, "I thought you wouldn't be back for awhile… Are you okay?" He asked, looking truly worried.

I nodded, "I'm better than I've been since father left. I may be living to die, but it's a heck of a lot better than running away from life." I gasped out.

He looked confused, "Yeah, I guess it is. Did something happen on the way to the forest?" I hated the fact that he knew exactly where I had been going.

"No, it happened on the way back!" Then I proceeded to tell him about the _blackout/vision/dream. _

"_If we get as far as the Port, then we pretty much have it under our belts. You said you only had seven hundred men?" He asked as he rubbed the back of his head in thought._

_I nodded, "The others had two-thousand." I confirmed._

"_We can't exactly send you with that small of an army, you understand right?" He asked carefully, as if he was trying not to spook me._

"_Of course, this was just my imagination playing with me… right?" I hadn't considered it to be a real vision yet._

_He shrugged, "It would be extremely nice for it to be real." He shrugged again._

"_That's not a real answer. You're supposed to know everything." I moaned._

_He chuckled, "I'm glad you have faith in me."_

"_Nick, I'm not scared anymore." I said in a tired voice._

"_That's my girl." He said as he planted a kiss on the top of my head._


	15. Her Army!

I cried out in pain as my face slammed against the ground with the rest of my body landing after it.

"Dead." Matthew said for the tenth time in that hour.

I sighed as he took his hunting knife away from my throat. I hopped to my feet and stared down at my bruised arm.

"Ignore it." Matthew's gruff voice said. His face softened when he saw my confused expression. "That little bruise there is the least of your problems when you're on the battle field."

My eyes widened, even as I let go of my arm.

"Get back into position." The four large men that were helping Matthew train me went back to their designated spots across the yard. Matthew came closer to me, and showed me what I had done wrong, then he let me practice on him so that the next time the men came at me I would know how to block them.

Then Matthew moved to stand in front of the four men. I took a deep breath, readied my sword, and instinctively crouched slightly lower.

We watched each other for a short moment, waiting for the other to make a move or for Matthew to signal a charge.

I was so concentrated on the men's movements I didn't see the archer swing himself up to the roof.

The archer moved slightly to get a better shot, and I finally saw him. I tensed, but didn't move to look at the man, I wanted them all to think I was still oblivious to him.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as he slowly knocked an arrow. I had to make myself wait. Fear and adrenaline was urging me to move, because I knew that the archer would really aim for my head, and he wouldn't hesitate to shoot just because I didn't see him. But I stood my ground.

He finally let the arrow go, the fear in Matthew's eyes made the urge to move even worse than before.

When the arrow was a full foot away from the bow, I dove to my left. I did a barrel-roll, I flipped once and smoothly came to my feet. I used the thrust of the roll to speed my run. I held on tight to my sword and ran at the group of men. They were still standing there, shocked that I had actually missed the arrow.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

I realized that the thumping wasn't my heart; arrows were landing in a steady stream in my wake, as the archer tried to shoot me down.

The men came out of their daze as they realized that I was only a yard away, and I was coming down on them hard. One of them shouted a war cry, and it seemed to throw the rest of them into action. They quickly tried to surround me, like they had every other time, but I had another plan.

I pulled to a halt, and stood stock still. Assuming the deer-in-the-headlights position. They hesitated, I knew in the real war I couldn't do this. But I wanted to win at least one little round in this 'fake' war.

They smiled a this-will-be-an-easy-kill smile, and I could see them subtly let their guard down, it was only a slight lowering of their swords, but it was there, and I used it to my advantage.

I flung my body backwards, letting all of my weight crash into the man behind me. I knew he had a small knife, but he held it as if he had been trained for throwing knives, not for hand to hand combat.

He stumbled back, and fell into a tree. I twisted around, and smashed my fist into his face, I was in survival mode, I didn't care if I might have broken his nose.

I sensed more than heard my next attacker. I ducked and did another barrel roll, I was coming to see how much fun they were, and how easy it was to get away when I used them, I couldn't stop myself from doing it over and over.

As I ran in the opposite direction I glanced back, and saw that the man had ended up slamming into the guy I had punched. I felt sorry for both of them as they went down, holding their stomachs and heads.

Matthew and the two other men were right on my heels. I tucked my sword under my arm, to where it could impale anyone behind me, then I stopped as fast as I could without falling. Matthew hadn't expected me to stop. The sword would have gone through him if I had not secured a large cork on the tip of it before we started.

I smiled as I shouted, "Dead!" Then I was running again. If I had looked back, I would have seen that Matthew had a smile that was identical to mine. Victory was written all over his face… even though he was technically supposed to be dead.

This time, my last two pursuers ran more catty-cornered to me, instead of right behind me. I laughed, and veered off to the left, towards a clump of spiked bushes. I heard the men grunt as they struggled to slow enough to make the turn.

I launched over the bushes, then hid on the other side, waiting for them to walk straight into my trap. They didn't want to get scratched up by the long spikes, so in their eyes, there was no other way. And they were so concentrated on killing me quickly they wouldn't stop to think before throwing themselves over the wall of thorns after me.

I waited for them to catch up. The first man jumped over the bush, I tripped him, then stabbed his heart. The second man, I knew, was expecting me, he had seen his partner go down. He stood right on the other side of the bush, unsure what to do. So I got down on my belly, and started to shimmy under the thorns a little ways away from the man.

He was looking contentedly into the darkness that was right beyond the prickles, he didn't see me sneaking around to his back. I cleared my throat once I was right behind him, he tensed.

"Could you possibly drop the weapon?" I asked in hushed tones.

He slowly lowered his sword to the ground, but when I made a move to retrieve it he swiftly pulled out a small blade he had hidden in his belt. I saw his hand flash and I tried to jerk back, but I was too late. He cut my arm before I could get away.

I grabbed the back of his collar, and slammed him to the ground. Then after I punched him in the gut, I shoved him as hard as I could with my boot, rolling him into the thorns. I could hear him struggle against the pain. I grasped at my arm, which was bleeding heavily by that time. "Jerk." I hissed at him through my teeth.

I spun around to make sure the others were counted as dead. I didn't relax my stance even when I found they had all been counted as dead, mostly because they were in to much pain to continue.

I walked rigidly towards Matthew, "Again." I said through my teeth.

He looked at me warily, "They wouldn't live through another round."

I glared back at him, "Isn't that the point?"

"You're injured, and all of the men are injured. We can take a break." He said in what was supposed to be a calming voice.

"There's no break in the real war, there's a never ending stream of killers coming my way the whole time, If I can't live through this." I gestured at the bush where the other men where trying to free 'the jerk.' "Then I will die immediately out there. Just get fresh men." I waved a dismissive hand at my arm, "I'll be fine.… I need to do this."

He sighed, "It goes against my better judgment…"

I beamed, "Thank-you."

"It may take awhile to find more men like these, go talk to Officer Nicholas, find out your schedule for the next couple of weeks." Matthew said, using the 'official' name of Nick. We were supposed to call him that, but I felt uncomfortable with it, so I just rebelled a bit.

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea. Nick wouldn't want me to keep fighting today if he saw my arm like this. He's been really over-protective lately."

"Suit yourself. But I want that arm bandaged before you start another fight. You may not be able to bandage your wounds immediately on the field, but you can when you're still here." Matthew said in a commanding voice that I couldn't have protested even if I wanted to.

I just nodded, the pain started searing a bit, and I wasn't sure if I could talk without showing how much it hurt.

"Oh, and Rachel?" I turned back to him, "You did a great job out there."

I smiled through my pain, "Thanks, that coming from you means a lot to me."

He smiled tenderly, "That roll was one of your fathers favorite things to do in battle… I always wondered how he could be so graceful. You're a mirror image of him, more beautiful, but still mirroring him. It's strange watching you grow up without him."

The pain from my arm mixed with Matthew's words made me want to collapse on the ground and just cry. That wasn't something I was at liberty to do right then though.

"Go get changed." Matthew said, the softness still lingering in his voice. I turned around and headed into the house. "And put a bandage on that arm!" He called after me. I waved him off without turning around.

I ended up bathing, putting new clothes on, and also taking a nap. Apparently, losing blood makes you tired. I only hoped that I wouldn't get sliced to bits on the real battleground. Because I hated the feeling of weakness, and the overwhelming need for sleep.

"Rachel, wake up sleepy head!"

I groaned, and rolled over… Not a good Idea. I gasped and sat up as pain shot through my arm. I snapped my head to the other side of the bed, where Annabelle was standing with an expression of surprise.

"Are you okay?" She asked in a hesitant voice.

I pulled my sleeve up to my elbow. Then sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth as my shirt caught on the gauze, ripping it off, and sending painful shocks through my body.

Bell hurried around the bed to see what I was staring at, I watched her blanch as she saw the bandage that was caked with my blood laying beside me on the bed.

"What happened?" She whispered. She looked about ready to faint.

I rolled my eyes at her squeamishness, it wasn't like she was experiencing the pain herself.

"It's just a scratch. I was training with Matthew."

She shivered as she tore her eyes away from the blood. "Matthew did this to you?… Wait, what are you training for?"

I stared at her, trying to gauge her seriousness. I saw she was totally oblivious. "The war... Hasn't anyone told you about it?" I asked slowly.

Her eyes widened. "I knew Andrew, Nick, and Jonathan were going, but… I mean… How are you going to… You can't go to war, Rachel. You're weaker than most fifteen-year-old men, how would you be able to fight hundreds upon hundreds of strong men?" She asked, as if the world around her was twisting drastically out of order. That order being, Men are stronger than women in physical strengths. Women are stronger than men in desirability strengths.

I laughed, "I'm much stronger than you think I am."

She narrowed her eyes, "Prove it to me then."

"You don't know what you're saying. You could get hurt."

"Prove. It." She said stubbornly.

I suddenly swung my leg, smoothly knocking her feet out from under her. She fell with a, "Hmmph!" As she sprawled out on her back.

She seemed prodded into more stubbornness, instead of my initial intent; to knock some sense into her.

"That was impressive… but it doesn't mean you could live through a war for one minute." She said as she cocked her head to the side.

We had a stare down that lasted for what seemed like several minutes, before I finally said, "Follow me." Then I marched angrily out of the room.

The back yard was filled with men by the time I got out there. I looked to Matthew with questions tumbling around in my head. I was on the verge of delight, but then I recognized three of the men, and a weird twisting went through me.

Nick, Jonathan, and Andrew were all standing around conversing with men who looked like they were born with a sword in their hands.

"Wow." I heard Bell say breathlessly. I followed her eyes to the men that were jabbing at each other with swords. I raised a questioning eyebrow. Then suddenly, it hit me what she had been 'wowing'… they were shirtless, and every time they lunged their muscles rippled in a fascinating way. Strange how I no longer noticed these kinds of things. My eyes flashed back to Nick, hoping I had missed the fact that he was shirtless too, but I frowned disappointedly when I found cotton.

Nick glanced up and caught me staring at him, he flashed me a smile, and I couldn't help but return it.

He strode towards me, then he took my hands shoulders, and pulled me to him. It wasn't really a hug, just a way to hold me I guess.

His hands slipped from my forearms, down my arms slowly. I knew he was aiming for my hands so I didn't stop him. Big mistake.

His hand reached the cut that I had failed to wrap or cover again. I could feel him tense about the same time as I did. I had tensed out of agonizing pain, he had tensed because he somehow knew what the sudden warmth on his hand was without looking.

I grabbed the front of his shirt when he didn't let go of my arm, as I did I accidentaly let a pained whimper slip out.

Nick jerked back, gaping at his bloody hand.

I wondered why he was reacting so badly, I was sure he had seen much more blood than that, and it was only a couple weeks ago that he got back from the war.

His eyes slowly raised to my arm, then he seemed to crumple a little bit. His shoulders drooped some, the corners of his eyes were strung tight, and his mouth hung open slightly, but tilted down at the edges.

Matthew appeared beside Nick, and glared down at me. "You were supposed to clean that up and bandage it."

"You knew she was injured and you didn't tell me?" Nick snapped at Matthew.

"She insisted on not going to you. She didn't want you to pull her out of training for the day."

Nick's eyes bore into me with that signature 'Nick glare' that could melt a desert. I looked down, and found I had blood on my boot. "Wow, how did that get there? I wonder if it's 'the jerk's' blood? If it is it would have had to have come from where I nailed his face into the ground…" My mind suddenly jumped back to the matter that was at hand, as Nick cleared his throat.

I looked up, to find that he was fighting the corners of his mouth, as they tried to turn upward against his will. He was laughing at me… and probably all the faces I made while I was spaced out.

"I should have told you." I said. His face immediately became sober.

"Yes. You should have. But I understand why you didn't." He said in a quiet voice.

I smiled at how easily that had been cleared up, "I love you."

He grinned, "I love you, too… That's why I don't want you to get hurt in any way. You deserve a pain free life." He paused, "I promise, someday we'll have lives where all we have to know to survive is how to make a sandwich." He said gravely. I knew he was refering to the war, and how I was having to train for it.

"Again, I love you so much." I said as I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.

When I pulled away from him there was something in his eyes that I couldn't read. It was like a burning mischief.

"I thought I would never get to see the day when you two finally said those words. Well I say it's about dog-on time." Matthew interjected in a grumpy old man voice.

"Officer Ralph Henderson reporting, Sir." A strong voice said from beside Nick. I turned and found a tall man dressed in an official looking uniform, he had a salute aimed at Nick. Nick untangled from my arms, and saluted back. The man named Ralph dropped his hand to his side, and continued standing at what I guessed to be attention.

"What's your report, Henderson?" Nick said in a tone of major authority.

"All the men are gathered that we were able to contact today, sir. Several men refused to work under a woman. But the ones that were rational came easily enough." He said this all on one breath. And I couldn't help but wonder how big his lungs were to be able to do that.

"Good. Continue trying to contact those others. I don't care if they live across the world. I want them." Nick replied.

He brought the salute up again, but to my surprise he didn't drop it when Nick saluted back. I wondered what he was doing. His eyes flickered between me and Nick. Nick cleared his throat and nudged me, "He needs you to salute before he's authorized to leave." He said bluntly.

"Oh!" I said as I quickly copied them, and put my hand to my forehead before dropping it back to my side. Ralph walked away with an uncomfortable frozenness on his face that I didn't think I'd ever be able to achieve.

"Okay, now for the fun to begin." Nick said as he turned me towards the throng of men.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered. All eyes were suddenly turned towards me. And the looks on the men's faces varied from doubtfulness, to disgust, to hatred. The only really cheerful smiles came from Andrew and Jonathan who waved when my gaze passed over them.

"You, are going to pick out your army." Nick said with a smile.

"Oh crap, It's true!" Bell exclaimed with big eyes.

* * *

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	16. Trees

I stared at them, I couldn't fit my head around how I was going to even begin picking out an army_. _

"Okay!" Nick's sudden shout caused me to jump. "I want everyone to form three lines! Stand in front of your designated number!"

I watched as four-hundred grown men scrambled to find their spots. I had seen quicker lines made by kindergarteners.

Nick put a notebook into my hands. I looked down at it, and found that it was a log of sorts. It began by listing someone's name. Then it had their age. Next would be their strong points, both in personality, and in battle terms. Then there was a number.

Nick had said for the men to stand behind their number. I saw that there was a ruler laying at their feet, it had numbers painted on it, from one, to some four-hundred.

I turned to Nick, "I don't know what to do." I whispered.

He hesitated, "Well, go down the rows, if you see someone you think should be in your army, then check their number, then find him on your list. If you do decide to keep him then you can check their name off there." He said as he pointed to the notebook.

I looked at him doubtfully, but turned and headed for number one.

It felt strange to have so many eyes watching my every move.

I tried to see myself through their eyes… A short, powerless, eighteen-year-old girl, who doesn't look as though she had ever lifted a sword in her life… Yeah, the odds seemed to be against me.

Walking down the row of men, I looked at each man's face as I passed him, nothing really clicked.

I had just about decided I was doing it wrong when my eyes found the face of '_the jerk'_. I hadn't expected to see him in any of these lines. He still hadn't changed out of the dirt and blood covered clothes he had been wearing earlier, what I noticed next was the fact that his face shown with respect as he looked at me.

"So what? Do I have to roll all of these men into thorns to get them to respect me? Or maybe just slam their faces into the ground?" I thought, as I stared in wonder at the man I had been calling 'the jerk'.

I looked down at the number at his feet, then to the notebook. I found his number, and name. "Peter Hudgins?" I asked him.

"Yes, ma'am." He nodded.

I almost laughed at the use of the word 'Ma'am. He was at least twenty-five years older than me.

I put a check beside his name as I smiled to him. Then I quickly made a note beside it to ask Nick if Peter could be a… commander of sorts. I knew he would make a great one.

"Thank-you." I said before moving on. I hoped he would understand the hidden meaning, and by the look in his eyes I knew he did.

I suddenly realized that I had been skipping over the angry or disrespectful faces as candidates for my army.

I turned to Nick, "I don't think this is really getting us anywhere."

"I concur." Matthew chimed in, and I heard a few grunts of agreement coming from the men.

"They have doubts." I said, motioning to the men behind me.

Nick and Matthew's eyebrows rose at my words.

"They do? How so?" Nick asked.

I wondered if they even saw the men's faces. They would have to be blind to miss that they didn't like me so far. "They don't think I'm capable fighting in the war, much less commandingan army." I turned to where I could see both Nick's face and the men in line's faces. "Before I can even think about picking people out of these lines I need to gain their trust. Their lives will be in my hands, and they can't risk going into a battle with me as their leader without knowing what kind of stuff I'm made of."

My voice softened a bit, "I'm willing to do whatever it takes to let them know I won't fail them." At that I got encouraging smiles from Andrew and Jonathan. Who were right in my line of vision.

"What do you have in mind?" Matthew asked.

"Why don't we continue our earlier lessons?" I asked.

Matthew chuckled, "That's fine with me. Just pick your opponents."

I had to hold back a laugh when Peter let out a very audible groan behind me.

I gulped, and rechecked the math once again, "Four hundred divided by ten equals forty. So I'll have to either fight a group of forty men ten times, or fight a group of twenty men twenty times…" I shuddered as I thought of how I was going to feel by the end of the day… if I even made it that far.

Nick rubbed the back of his neck, "Are you _sure_ you want to do it this way?" He asked.

I sighed, "I don't have any other choice. This is the simplest way."

"She's right, Nick. She'll gain their respect, and we can judge which men would make better soldiers for her army." Matthew said.

Nick stared at me, his gaze felt probing, like he could see every fear I had right then. "Under one condition." He finally said in a soft tone.

I nodded, "Anything."

"You let me do it with you. I'll be on your team, so I can protect you." He whispered.

How can I say no to him when he looked at me that way? I wondered if he was melting my heart on purpose, or if he had no idea what he was doing to me.

"Okay." I said in a weak voice.

He beamed and leaned forward to pull me into a hug.

"Me too." I turned to Andrew when he said this. He had come from his place in line to listen in on our conversation. I saw that most of the other soldiers were wandering away from their spots as well. Andrew's expression was almost grave. He still hadn't gotten used to me and Nick being together… I didn't think he ever would. When you love someone like he did you can't just let them go.

Jonathan came up beside him, "I'm in." He said, as if I had actually asked him to help.

I glared at them. Why were they doing this? I had literally never done anything nice for them. I didn't want them getting themselves hurt for someone who was never _ever_ there for them. I didn't think that I had even ever said anything worth while to them. I had even broken both of their hearts! They didn't owe me anything. And I didn't deserve their friendship.

"I won't be on your side, Rachel. I think I could do more to keep you safe if I was on the other team… Sure, I'll be trying to kill you, but I'll also be able to call off the men if things get too intense for you." He said it all seriously, and he didn't even laugh when he said the part about trying to kill me.

Since when did I suddenly become so vulnerable in all of their eyes? I had always been able to take care of myself… Except for that short stretch in time, after my father's death, when I was practically killing myself with grief. That doesn't count though.

"I wouldn't mind being on your team." I turned to burn holes in the person who said that, only to see Peter standing there. "I really don't want to get beat up by you again. Once is enough for me. I've learned my lesson." He said with a fake worried frown.

For some reason, I didn't want to accept any of the offers. I felt my pride taking over. "I would rather do it by myself." I said, quietly at first. But when no one heard me, on account of the 'planning' they were doing, I spoke up, "I don't want your help." I knew it sounded harsh and rude, but that's how I was feeling right then.

Apparently, I didn't have a say in it, because five disbelieving eyes turned my way.

There was a pause, then their angry voices came at me in a wave of simultaneous shouts.

"Not. On. Your. Life."

"There's no way you can stop me…. legally."

"You are _not_ going up against that many guys without their help."

"You should probably rethink that answer."

"I don't care. I'm going to help you. No matter what."

I wasn't sure what words came out of whom, but it wasn't a hard guess.

I crossed my arms across my chest, trying to stave off the feeling of fear once more, "I wish you wouldn't." I said, not meeting any of their eyes. I did not want _any _of them getting hurt trying to protect _me_. Even Peter had a soft spot in my heart already.

I felt a pressure on my hand, to my surprise, it wasn't Nick, or even Matthew. "The way you're feeling now? It's the same way we all feel towards you. Don't push us away. We need to do this, to protect you." It was Jonathan who said this. He had snuck past my barriers, and I couldn't help but listen and understand.

We were faced off against some of the scariest men I had ever seen. I wondered if they had pushed the bigger, angrier looking guys to the front, because that's all I saw. Muscle, and sharp swords. Any of the men could very well kill me. I don't mean like just counting me as dead. I mean that their knives, or arrows, or swords could slip a little further than they meant for them to, and I could die for real. The tips of the swords were all corked, but there was no other protection from the sharp edges of the blade.

I went over the plan in my head once more. We each had eight people to kill before we could be completely safe. There were five of us, and forty-one of them. We wouldn't run straight for them when it was time to charge, we would actually turn around and head into the forest at our backs. The same forest I had sought shelter in so many times before.

I knew that the other team had trackers, good ones. I just hoped they wouldn't follow me. It was kind of selfish, but if all of the others were counted as dead the game would keep progressing. I was the main target, they had to kill me to win. I had Matthew to thank for those rules, I had been completely shocked when he had stated them earlier, and I had wanted to throw the nearest sword at him right about then.

I mentally sorted out what kind of strategies the men would use;

There would be the pack, the ones who followed the person who seemed the most capable leader or tracker.

There would be the loners, they would either get hopelessly lost, or they would stay on my heals. Because obviously, it's easier to travel and sneak when you're alone.

And lastly, there would be the assassins, the scariest part about this. They were the ones who you never even saw until after you had been shot or stabbed. How I knew all of this? I played capture the flag when I was a lot younger. This was pretty much just a larger, more dangerous version that. Except, I was the flag, and they were all trying to _kill_ me.

I wondered if any of the others were getting nervous. I looked at them, they all had smirks. They were freaks, of course they weren't nervous. They looked so intimidating with their grins, I was glad they were on my team.

I had a sword, a bow, and a small knife. The arrows in the sling on my back didn't have a sharp point. It was more of an arrow, with a rock instead of the normal arrow head. They would only bruise anyone I shot them at, but the person would still be counted as dead.

A high pitched whistle pierced the quiet.

I spun, and searched for the best path into the forest. Jonathan and Peter were already running, but I noticed Andrew and Nick were waiting on me. I jerked into motion as I saw a small opening between some trees. It would be impossible for more than one person to fit through at a time, so it would slow the oncoming soldiers down some.

I gained a strange burst of energy when I came to the edge of the forest, and I almost squealed in delight as I remembered my unfair advantage in the woods. I would be faster than the men.

Nick and Andrew were able to keep up with me for maybe half a mile, but I soon couldn't hold back for them anymore, my senses took over, and I pulled away from them, running at full speed.

The cool air stung my face and lungs. That was a down side to being in the forest, I could feel things with much more intensity.

I propelled over a large tree that had fallen, landing smoothly on the other side and stopping to ready myself for the ones that would soon catch up with me. I could hear shouting not far away, but it didn't seem like they were getting any closer.

I suddenly felt sick when I realized that Nick and Andrew were probably trying to hold them off. I wanted to go back, but I knew I couldn't.

Everything quieted, and in a matter of minutes, I heard the crunching of leaves, and the snap of twigs as many feet rapidly approached where I was hiding.

I decided to climb up one of the trees beside me, I had a hundred arrows in my sheath, so I could just pick them off from a tree.

I picked a tree with thick branches. It also had spikes at the bottom of it, so it was hard for me to climb because I kept getting caught on the thorns, but that also made it hard for any pursuers to climb. I got up it without too much trouble. And settled on a branch that was high enough to feel safe, but low enough to see all of what was happening on the ground.

I heard the rough cursing voice before I saw it's owner, "I know I saw her. She's around here somewhere."

I almost laughed when he stopped to look around right under where I was sitting. I pulled out one of the arrows, and simply dropped it on his balding head. I was surprised to find that it knocked him out cold. I hadn't planned that, but I should have seen it coming, what with how heavy the rocks on the end of the arrows were.

It was strangely funny and exciting. I could have laughed at how the rest of the men were looking around for their tracker, who had suddenly disappeared. The man had fallen behind some bushes when I knocked him out. He was just out of sight of his men, but it didn't help that he was wearing camouflage.

There were only three men with him, I found. I smirked as I pulled three arrows out of the sheath. It was strangely easy to knock them out too.

I came down from the tree, and checked to make sure they were all still breathing. Then I stole the man's green jacket, I was wearing a white shirt, and it was a wonder they didn't see me up in that tree.

I hurried away from the scene before more could come and find me there.

_**A/N**_

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	17. Protective Enemies

I had decided that instead of running around, trying to get myself killed, I should hide. So I found a crevice in a tree and tucked myself away in it. After a few hours of stiffness, I decided that every single person playing this game was probably doing the exact same thing as me right then. Hoping they could surprise attack me. "Yeah, well that's not gonna happen." I whispered to myself.

I was frankly getting bored. And I may have started going slightly insane. Some excitement finally presented itself, when a whole pack of men came crashing through the trees all around me. They were all going in one direction, and I knew they couldn't see me, but I couldn't stop myself from trying to sink further into the hollow of the tree.

The stream of men slowly started to dwindle, and soon there were only the weaker men at the tail of the procession. Some of them stopped, and bent over as they tried to catch their breaths. There were only five that I could see, but I was sure there were more on the side of the tree I couldn't see out of, so I guesstimated roughly ten.

I could take ten. All the rest of the group had run on ahead… They were going to miss out on the fun.

I adjusted my sword in my hand. It made a slight clinking sound, which drew the attention of one of the closer soldiers. He looked into the shadow of the tree, holding his sword out in front of him. He was only about sixteen or seventeen. And his expression showed extreme fear.

Suddenly, one of the older men laughed. "No human could fit in there, Harry. Not even the girl. Your nerves are taught from that last encounter. Calm yourself, or you will get gutted while looking in the bushes for bunnies." The man turned around, but the boy held his ground.

I felt sorry for the kid, he was the type that no one listened to, even though he may be more right than anyone else. I didn't move a muscle, and he eventually turned around, but it was hesitant.

They decided that taking a small breather there would be fine, since the rest of the group was too far to catch up on. I wasn't sure whether to be upset or not about that.

It was getting darker, Matthew had also proposed the rule that we wouldn't stop the game till one whole team was counted as dead, or, of course, I had died.

So… I was stuffed in a tiny opening of a tree, mushy wet stuff was pressing up against me from all sides, something hard and poky was stabbing into my back, my legs were getting cramped, a musky pine smell was suffocating me, I was surrounded by an unsuspecting enemy, the enemy had a warm fire that was just far enough away that I didn't benefit from it, it was past the time that I'm usually in my warm bed sleeping, something was crawling on the side of my head and I couldn't risk moving and swatting it away, and on top of all that, It was still my birthday which was supposed to be special.

In light of all that, I decided getting out of there was my best option. I slowly began trying to pull a piece of the tree's bark off. It hurt, wood was getting wedged between my fingernails. I had a grip on a reasonably sized chunk, but it wouldn't come unattached from the tree. I couldn't pull back on it, because my elbow was up against the back of the hollow, there was absolutely no room to move around.

I finally shoved down with my hand, it broke away with a small cracking sound. I was grateful for the fire, it was crackling as well, so it disguised the noise. I winced as a sharp piece of the tree sunk into my palm and broke off, but I didn't make any noise.

I positioned myself to where my throwing arm was able to maneuver properly. Then I chunked the piece of wood over the men's head's into the brush behind them. It shattered against a tree, making way more noise than I had dared to hope.

They all immediately shot up from their seats around the fire and pointed their various weapons towards where the noise came from. They began shouting in the direction of the noise, I decided that they thought it was a wild animal or something.

While their attention was diverted I slipped out of the tree and silently moved to the edge of the ring of light. I easily took out three of the guys that were closest to me. But their cries of alarm got the attention of the others.

That's where it got hard.

They all ran at me, swinging blindly. They couldn't see me because I was in the darkness, and they had been staring at the fire for awhile. I dodged them, and was able to stab a few. There were four left, the ones counted as dead sat where they were, watching tensely as we attacked each other.

I was facing off against one of the men, wondering where I had seen him before, when one of the other men attacked me from behind. He managed to get my sword away from me, because he had seen how well I handled it. And how I had killed half of them with it. We somehow ended up rolling around on the ground, grappling for it. All the while I was wondering why I was trying so hard to keep it when I had a perfectly good bow, and also a knife strapped to my hip.

We were in mid roll when I reached into my sheath and stabbed the man in the chest with one of the arrows. It didn't cut him, but the force I had put into it had been bad enough to bruise him.

He rolled away, onto his hands and knees, gasping to get his breath back. I pulled myself up, and waited for the next attacker. I didn't pick up my sword, I felt lighter without it, and I knew I could always get it later.

The kid that had heard me in the tree came at me first. He was holding his sword all wrong. It was like he had barely had any training. He swung the sword at me, but at the same time, I dove for his legs, knocking him off balance. We both landed hard, he lost hold of his sword, and my arrows all fell out of my sheath.

I grabbed at the knife on my hip, and brought it to his throat. But I didn't cut, instead I stood, and ran at the last two guys.

One thing I realized about these men, they were easy to trip. They had little to no grace and balance. The next guy I attacked I went for his legs again, he fell back into a tree, I was about to punch him, but he ducked. I skinned my knuckles on the rough bark. I cradled my hand to my chest, and grabbed my knife with my left hand.

I aimed, and flung the knife between the head of the last two enemies. They both stared at me in shock. I stepped past them, and went in search of my knife. When I found it and came back into the light, I expected the men to be gone, but they were still sitting there.

Their expressions were ranging from failure, to disbelief. None of them noticed that I had come back. I sat down near the fire, I was shivering. My clothes were still wet from the strange mushy stuff in the tree. At least in there I had a block from the cold wind. There was suddenly a weight on my shoulders. I looked up into the guy named Harry's eyes. He had just given me his coat.

I suddenly wanted to hug the kid. He had sacrificed his own warmth for mine. I snuggled deeper into the jacket, and smiled at him. "Thank you." I said.

He smiled back, "No problem."

"You guys should head on back. Mrs. Jackson should be at my house, ready to bandage any wounds you might have. And it's getting cold, I don't want you all getting sick." I said, as I watched the flames licking at the logs.

"Are you going to be okay out here?" One of them asked.

I looked up in surprise, the man that had spoken looked so familiar.

He suddenly laughed, "I'm David. You met me, my wife and my new baby boy, Caleb, a few months back…"

A light went off in me. "Oh! Sorry, it's nice to see you again!

"We can't get over the fact that you're doing this. You seemed so normal and… fragile when you visited us. Now I'm getting an arrow shot at my head by you." He chuckled, but he then turned serious. "When I look at you, all I can see is Jessica. I can't imagine letting her spend the night in this weather without protection."

"That's why you weren't trying very hard to kill me." I laughed. "You kept seeing me as Jessica."

He ducked his head, "Yeah."

"Well, I thank you for your concern, but I'll be fine." I said.

One of the other men suddenly spoke up, "I agree with him, I wouldn't ever let my daughter stay outside alone at night. Maybe we should stay with her till morning."

"Yeah, we don't want our future commander freezing to death just because we didn't stay now do we?"

I couldn't believe the loyalty I was hearing.

"And that other group could come back any minute during the night." Someone said.

"They wouldn't hesitate really to hurt her." Harry said. "I heard the leader of that group talking. He was saying some really brutal stuff."

There was a thoughtful silence, then, "We'll stay." Someone decided for me.

I rolled my eyes, "I guess I don't have a choice?"

"Nope." David said with a smile.

We all settled down around the fire, a few more of the men offered their coats, but I declined, saying that I was warm enough. And in truth I was okay. The men had enough insight to lay down to where their bodies blocked me from the wind. And I was close enough to the fire to be toasty.

"Hey, Harry?" I asked, watching him from across the fire.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you didn't follow your instinct." I said, referring to when he was staring straight at me in the tree.

He laughed, "No problem."

"Oh, and when this is over, I'm going to teach you how to hold your sword properly." I said in a teasing voice.

"That bad, huh?" He asked in exasperation.

"No, you just need a little help is all."

He just laughed.

"Good night everybody." I said a little louder.

"Good night." They all replied.

Nothing else happened that night. I was able to get a good, albeit cold nights sleep. And the men were at rest about if I was warm enough or not. I was glad they stayed. That night could have been much more miserable without them.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**Hey everybody!**

**I'm sorry this chapter took so long, ****I finished it almost a week ago, ****but my internet was out. :( ****Needless to say, I was panicking.**

**I kept thinking that all my reader were gonna hate me, track me down, and demand the next chapter... I only wish someone would care that much whether or not I updated.**

**Please review. That means you too, person that isn't planning on reviewing, that means you too.**

**If ya'll want, I could promise a thousand words for every review I get from people who don't usually review. Yeah, I'll do that, bring it on.**

**Okay, I'll stop blah blahing, and I'll get to something good.**

Smiley (_guest_) ; **I'm really glad you liked the fighting scenes, It's easier for me to write those than it is to write romance. I guess I just have a lot of pent up violence, Haha. Woah, I can't imagine not having romance in my life till twelve. I practically ate up all the Disney movies. I still love watching romance, but when writing it, I'm kinda awkward. :) Oh, were you the guest reviewer on chapter fifteen too?**

****Pokemonchen; **Your review was awesome! I had to go back and reread the chapter to know what you were talking about, but it really made my day. XD**

****Booksnake; **I didn't have any romance in this chap for you, but if some more people review, I'll finally get on with the story, get to the real war, and I will most definitely have some sweet bits of stuff between Rachel and Nick! :) I'm not sure if it would have worked any other way other than to have all of them fight. They should be meeting up sometime soon so that they can all kick butt together. :)**

**Please review, I will add a thousand words on for every review from someone new. :D**


	18. Don't Sneeze

Nothing happened that night, but when I woke before dawn the next morning, I found that enemies surrounded us.

Trust me, seeing hooded men on every side of your camp, pointing bows and arrows at your head was not a good thing to wake up and see.

I nudged David with my boot. He just rolled over, moving his leg out of reach of my foot. "Harry, David!" I whispered the only two names of the group that I knew. "Wake up!" I did not have to whisper, but I was scared.

Harry shot up, and looked around; when he spotted the men, he froze. I was glad I was wearing Harry's jacket, it had a hood and it covered my fear filled face.

"Wake up!" Harry's voice filled the clearing; he put a surprising amount of authority into it. The men were all suddenly awake and alert. And I found myself surrounded by my men's bodies. Their backs to me, they were protecting me. I could not believe it.

Then the hooded men charged, and I could feel their impact on the bodies around me. The hooded men had, for some reason dropped their bows, and had switched to hand to hand combat. The men were rolling around on the ground within seconds.

I was grabbed from behind, and slammed to the ground with enough force to knock all the breath out of me. I twisted around in the man's arms, and flipped to where I was on top. I brought my fist back to punch, but as I did that the man's hood fell back.

I suddenly had to laugh. "Nick?" I squeaked out in a peel of laughter. My laughing caused every other man in the clearing to freeze. I did bring my hand down to Nick's face, but it was to rub his cheek, not to punch him as I had been about to do.

Nick laughingly pulled me into a hug as he sat up.

I looked around; my new men were all still frozen, confused. But all the men from my team had goofy smiles on. They looked like they were trying to figure out how they had let themselves get into that situation. "Hey guys." I said with a smile. Everyone visibly relaxed, My teammates had been waiting to see if the men were with me, and the men were waiting to make sure my teammates were really my teammates.

Nick studied me with a wry smile, "We've been looking everywhere for you. And when we finally do find you, you're perfectly fine. Safeguarded by your very own troops."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Would you rather me be helpless, and surrounded not by good guys, but bad ones instead?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment, "Hmmm… yes."

I shook my head at him, rolling my eyes.

"Hey Rach, did you kill all these guys by yourself?" Jonathan asked.

"Well you four sure didn't help me." I said sarcastically.

"Har, har, har... So you've killed ten so far? Nice!" He said.

"A- actually, I've killed fourteen… So far."

Everyone was silent.

"Is that bad?" I asked.

Nick suddenly laughed in my ear, "We've only killed three. And that was with us in a group of four." He told me.

"Oh." I said, feeling my cheeks heat. "Well, um, you would have killed these guys if I hadn't gotten to them first." I encouraged.

Andrew smiled, "Don't try to protect our man-pride, Rachel. We're so proud of you that it's enough to cover our lack of skills." Everyone had a good laugh over that.

"We should get going now. I've probably waited longer than I should have to bandage this." One of the men said, pointing to a deep slash on his stomach. In the light of day, my inflictions looked worse, and more painful. I winced, as I realized that almost every man had a bruise or a gash. Of course, I had my fair share of pain, but I felt bad for the men as some of them limped, or held there arm while walking.

"Hey Harry, here's your jacket." I said, pulling it off. I tried not to show how hard it was to do that simple task, due to pain racing through my back, but in spite of my I was sure I caught a flicker of worry passing across Nick's face. I handed over the jacket, "Thank-you so much for sharing it with me… I would have been a block of ice this morning if you hadn't. I hope the cold didn't disturb you too much."

"You're welcome. And don't worry, I've slept outside in much worse weather than last night. Oh, and I seem to recall a promise for fighting lessons…" He said.

"I haven't forgotten. Just come by my house anytime after this is over, I'll show you the basics." I told him with a smile. Then, addressing the whole group that was departing, "Everyone go home, get changed, take a nap, spend time with your family… Harry's not the only one who will be going through training. May I be the first to congratulate you; You ten are the first addition to my army." I announced. They all looked like they had won a great award as I told them this.

I looked to Nick, who was looking over the men in satisfaction, "Good choice." He whispered to me. I nodded, turning to watch the men leave. I knew I wouldn't regret that decision a bit.

The five of us walked lazily through the forest, waiting for someone to attack us.

"So, what has your strategy been so far, Rachel?" Peter asked.

I laughed, "Pretty much I've just been trying not to die." I said, kicking a rock out of the way.

"You've killed fourteen men, and you didn't have a strategy?" Jonathan exclaimed.

I shrugged, "I climbed a tree and knocked four guys out with arrows… I hid inside a hollow tree and sneak attacked ten men... I guess my strategy has been trees. Does that make any sense?" I asked, wrinkling my nose.

"I understand what you mean. It may not make sense, but I understand." Jonathan said in an overly dramatized solemn tone.

I shoved him, "You're such a dork." I said laughingly.

Nick slowed down to my pace, "Can I talk to you?" He asked quietly.

"Now?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay." I said.

We fell a little ways behind the group before he spoke, "So… where all are you hurt?" He asked.

I turned surprised eyes to him, "What do you mean?"

He raised an accusing eyebrow at me, then suddenly grabbed my hand, he had spun me around before I could even realize what he was doing. All he had to do was put one gentle finger on my back, and I jerked away from him. He had found my bruise. Not that it was that hard, my whole back was bruised, from my neck to my middle back.

I slowly turned to face Nick, he had a smug look on his face, "Where all are you hurting?" He asked again.

I closed my eyes, "Several places." I sighed.

"Show me." He ordered.

I first held my knuckle out. It was covered in blood from the tree I punched. The middle knuckle had a thick flap of skin hanging off of it. He frowned, "This may hurt a little." He said, before flipping the big flap back over the knuckle and holding it tightly for a second. It stuck.

Then I showed him the large thorn stuck deep in the palm of my left hand. He gently prodded the thorn until it was sticking far enough out of my hand. Then he took a good grip on it and yanked. When it started bleeding he calmly untucked the end of his shirt and used it to put pressure on my hand and soak up the blood.

Then I showed him a large potato sized bruise on the back of my right arm, I wasn't sure when I got that.

Then there was the rip in my palm from my hunting incident. He poked at it before deciding he couldn't do anything to help that right then.

Then I tenderly pulled the bandage off my left arm to look at it. It had been bothering me ever since I had been inside the tree. To my horror it was turning kind of blue. Nick muttered something under his breath, then spoke louder, "It's getting infected. Wrap it up again. There's nothing we can do about that right now." He said.

Then there was a small rip on the back of my ankle, but every time I stepped it felt like my leg was set on fire. He fixed that with a strip from his shirt.

When I finished showing him all my boo boos he tucked what was left of the bottom of his shirt back in and took my hand gently in his before hurrying to catch up to the rest of the group.

"Which poor dead bloke did you pull that useless thing off of?" Andrew asked, tugging on the thin camouflage jacket I had stolen.

I grinned, "Some tracker." I said, shrugging again.

Andrew stared at me, his jaw slack, "You really stole it from someone?" He asked, a strange awe in his voice.

I nodded in assent, "My shirt's really white; really easy to see in this forest. I was hoping it would also keep me warm… but it's flimsier than it looks."

"It looks pretty darn flimsy, so it must be really bad." Jonathan implied.

"Shut up, Jonathan." Andrew muttered. I could have laughed at how Jonathan got on Andrew's nerves so easily. There had always been tension between the two, but it had died down from wanting to kill each other violently, to just wanting to kill each other. I saw it as progress.

"Take it easy, Andrew." I said, patting his arm.

He sighed deeply, "I'm trying." He said.

Someone sneezed a little ways behind me, "Bless you." I called over my shoulder.

"Thanks." Someone muttered.

My eyes flew wide open, I held back a laugh and I leaned into Nick to whisper to him, "That was Matthew's sneeze. I'd know it anywhere. We're being followed."

The other guys overheard and their faces turned to battle mode. Nick smiled and nodded, "I thought there was something strange about that sneeze, but I thought it was just Peter or something. Try to keep up a conversation with everyone like you've been doing. Don't let them know we're on to them."

"That's a pretty bird." I said suddenly.

Nick leaned down to whisper again, "Don't over do it though." He laughed.

"No, seriously, look at that bird." I said, pointing to the red cardinal on a branch in front of us.

Nick smiled down at me, "You're easily distracted by attractive things, aren't you?" He didn't bother whispering.

"Like… you?" I asked dryly.

"You know that's not what I was talking about." Nick said, rolling his eyes.

"That sounds more like something I would say." Jonathan said.

"Yes, we all know you're conceited Jonathan." Andrew retorted.

Jonathan stuck his tongue out at him, "Don't be mean." He said.

"And immature." Andrew added.

"How about we stop here?" Nick suddenly interrupted. "If we haven't found them by now we might as well rest for a bit."

"I agree!" I said happily, I was hungry, and since we didn't have any food with us, I wanted to rest for a bit before we faced however many men Matthew had led to us.

I knew we were only stopping because the clearing had plenty of fighting room and a thick layer of trees on the side opposite us, so we would be tucked together in the nook of the trees, and no one could come around and attack us from behind while we fought the people in front of us.

I didn't get to rest though, as soon as we had come to a full halt in the clearing I heard Matthew's voice shout… "Charge!"

I sighed tiredly before turning to face the soldiers with my bow armed.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**Two-Thousand-Forty-One Words! :D :D**

**Aren'tcha proud of me?**

**Sorry it took so long, writers block set in halfway through. Bleh.**

**_Pokemonchen_; I don't know if I should have David in the army... He does have a family. Buuut, Rachel won't be able to be soft on the battle ground just because the men she's about to kill have families. That's how you get yourself killed. I won't let David die if he does join.**

**_Booksnake_; First off, I'm sorry for taking so long, I was expecting to open my front door and find you standing there. In my imagination you didn't have a pitchfork,because you promised not to hunt me down with a pitchfork. You did however have a butcher knife. XD**

_**Smiley!**_(Guest)**; I try really hard to make the characters their own person, I'm glad you recognize that :)**** Jonathan was originally supposed to be mean, but I'm a wimp. And I don't like mean people, therefore It's hard for me to make someone mean. I suppose Andrew was being pretty jerkish in this chapter (VICTORY!) Haha.**

**_Express-Yourself101_; Thank you for reviewing! I'm really glad you think so! The first one thousand words were for you :D**

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**Have a super-scrumptious weekend! Not sure what that means, just go with it. **


	19. DimWits and Jerks :D

I felt a sinking feeling as I realized that every man that charged through the trees came straight towards me. I knocked a few out while I was waiting for Nick and the others to get there. It was like a fog lifted as Nick, Andrew, Jonathan, and Peter reached me. They took down several, and moved me to where I was behind them.

It was really loud, and several men got past their guard. I killed them easily, until one particularly large man tackled me to the ground. Before I could react he had straddled me, and I had a moment of horror as he lifted his huge fist to punch me. I could see in his eyes that he wouldn't stop until I was dead. I screamed, real fear making the scream loud and piercing.

He brought the fist down, nothing could describe all the pain that pulsed through me. He punched again, and again. This was the one time I stayed completely conscious, which was also the only time I wished I would black out.

I struggled to reach my knife, (which wasn't corked, by the way) his leg was clamped around my hip, blocking my scabbard. I clawed his face, but it didn't slow him down any.

I went limp, not because I couldn't move any more, but because I hoped he would think I was dead.

It worked. Apparently he was more brawn than brain. He stood and faced the fight, just standing there… the idiot.

I jumped on his back and wrapped my arm around his thick neck in a choke hold. He started turning red, then a weird blue, before he fell forward and passed out. I sat on his back for a moment, my face hurting like heck.

I saw two guys running at me from the side, I put the first guy in a wrist lock, and stole his sword before hitting his head with the hilt of it. Then the second guy I just stabbed with the corked tip. He looked at me like I had really stabbed him. I couldn't believe how dramatic his face was. Then he flopped on the ground like a fish. I rolled my eyes.

"Rachel! Heads up!" Andrew called, I looked around to find a large wave of men coming towards me.

I killed seven, then I ran over to a huge boulder, and climbed on top of it with some trouble. I started picking off the bigger ones with my bow. It was almost comical whenever I hit their head and they fell over with a loud thump, sometimes landing on others. I tried not to do that though, I didn't want to give them a concussion.

As soon as I was finished taking out the big guys, I got down on my stomach and started shooting the ones that I could see that had bows and were retuning my fire. Then I went on to anyone that was attacking Andrew, Jonathan, Nick, and Peter. When they saw their opponent go down in pain, they would look up, see me sniping, and they would smile.

When I ran out of arrows I slid down the rock and began picking off men who ran at me.

At one point I found myself tackled on the hard ground again, but this man was smaller than the last, and he had crazed eyes. His knees were tight on my hips, making it difficult to even squirm a little. I punched him, and fought to free myself. But he suddenly reached for my neck, squeezing hard and cutting off air and blood circulation. I pulled with all my strength on his hands, they were fastened like a vise. I gasped for air, knowing I had very little time before I blacked out. My head swam.

Suddenly Andrew plowed into the side of my attacker, flinging him off of me, and landing on top of the man. As if the impact wasn't enough damage, Andrew started punching the man, anger etched into his face.

Nick appeared beside me, he took my chin and turned my face away from Andrew's violent assault. I shuddered and buried my face in the crook of Nick's neck. He held me close, we didn't move a muscle. I suddenly snapped out of the initial shock of almost dieing, I realized that everyone was just standing around, watching me with large eyes.

It was like they had suddenly remembered I was a female that needed protecting. They watched my face in horror that I had almost died… at one of their hands. I felt so young and helpless in the midst of all the worried faces.

Matthew's face was hard as he came forward out of the crowd, "Enough." He said softly to me, then he turned to the men who stood frozen. "You have seen her kill relentlessly. You've seen her teamwork and loyalty. Many a hardened soldier has been knocked down by this fragile girl today. She evaded the best of our trackers, who are now counted as dead. She showed bravery and courage that made everyone of you soldiers look like wimps. She held her ground as we emerged from that forest, and she will hold her ground when she goes into battle with you. She will risk her life to protect you and will make sure you return home to your families. Now, anyone who still does not believe in Rachel Tremont, speak now." He fell into silence, a silence that screamed loudly in my ears as no one raised their voice.

"I thought so." Matthew said when no one spoke.

"Now, I know we're all tired. Let's all go home, rest up, and we'll meet tomorrow to discuss matters." Nick said in a clear commanding voice. "Dismissed." He finished.

Everyone took one last approving look at me, then they turned and slowly made their way back through the trees. Matthew, Andrew, Jonathan, and Peter all left with them, leaving me and Nick alone in the clearing.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked, forcing me to meet his eyes.

"I will be." I said, still shook up.

His eyes were sad as he said, "Is it wrong to wish I could have been the one that beat him up?" He asked.

I smiled, "No, but I needed you right then. I think I would have gone into shock if you weren't there to calm me down."

"Matthew could have done that." He said.

"No, he couldn't have. You affect my whole entire being, Nick." I said.

"What do you mean?"

I took his hand and pressed it over my thundering heart, "Every time you're near." I whispered. His eyes widened, and he leaned forward to press his ear to my chest. He sat there for a moment, my heart didn't slow any. And Nick wasn't helping… At all.

Without warning, he pushed forward. I fell on my back, him laying with his ear still pressed over my heart. I tilted my head so I could see his face. His eyes were closed, and his face was blank. "What are you thinking?" I whispered.

"I love this sound. I could listen to it forever." He replied softly.

"Really?" I smiled, the thought making joy bubble warmly in me. I moved my hands to his back, and let my eyes fall shut. When I opened them again, I was on the couch in Matthew's living room. I was embarrassed to find I had fallen asleep, and apparently I had been out for a while, because it was already getting dark outside. My head was resting on Nick's lap. He was asleep also, his soft snores making me smile. He didn't snore unless he was dead asleep.

His head was leaning back against the wall behind him. I sat up. I quickly realized that it was cold in the room without the blanket that had been over me. I snuggled up next to Nick's warm side, even though he was asleep, his arm still curled around my waist. I covered both of us with the blanket. Soon falling back to sleep, though my stomach was growling loudly.

The next few days were long and sometimes brutal.

After sorting out all the details of who was serving under me in battle, we moved on to training every single soldier. Including me. And in retrospect, I realize that I was put through a more hardcore training than that of my men.

Each morning my schedule started with waking before dawn. Then after eating, two huge men came and took turns attacking me. Then I went on to learning how to find a man's weak spot. So much learning, and it was all crammed into such a small amount of time. Most days I was out in the field working hard until long after midnight.

The only way I had enough strength to bear the weight of all the work was the constant thought that I was doing it for my people. Winning that war was at the forefront of my mind every waking hour. I had come to a point where I knew I would lay down my life in a heartbeat if it meant freeing the world and my people from the Elder's oppression. When I told this to Nick, he laughed and said, "It's funny, the thing that's always at the forefront of my mind is the question of what I can be doing to ensure your safety."

The weeks that separated me and the coming war flew by, I often felt the need to reach over to the clock and hold the ticking arms still. The battle field loomed threateningly over our heads.

The terrible thing was, I knew I was ready for it.

* * *

><p><em><strong>(AN)**_

_**It's done! :D**_

_**It was actually done like three weeks ago...**_

_**Anyway, I'm really glad I finally was able to update it.**_

_**It's Monday... such an evil word and such an evil day... *shudders***_

_**I'll pretend to be super happy though... :D**_

_**I hope everyone had a great **_**_holiday break! I certainly did._**

_**Booksnake; I hope you can forgive me again... this was probably the worst space of time between updates ever for me. I love this chapter, it was probably the funnest to write so far. :)**_

_**Pokemonchen; I doubt that this chapter was worth that long wait, but I do hope you enjoyed it. And I'm thinking that all the people who fought her in the first round would be in her army... except for the prominently stupid or jerkish guys. :P**_

_**Smiley**(Guest)**; I'm glad you liked the chapter, it's all fun to write for me. :) I like men who are protective, it makes them seem even more gentlemanly. I like bickering also. And yeah, they pretty much hate each other... I guess it's a man thing, cause I sure don't want them to hate each other, and I'm the one who created them. Haha.**_

_**DaughterOfNoOne; I'm so glad you're back! I missed your reviews. Thank's for reviewing, twice. :) When you said you'd have to wait 'awhile' I bet you didn't guess it'd be this long... :/ My schedule was jam packed over the holidays. Anyway, I was glad to see your review.**_

_**Merry Meatloaf Monday! **_

_**Sounds so lame, **_

_**but again, **_

_**just go with it.**_

_**-Ilikemutemath,**_

_**A Classic Criminal**_


	20. Wedding Bells and War Drums

I slowly rechecked all of my gear and clothing.

I hoped that if I dawdled Matthew would suddenly walk in and say, "Oh, you know what? This was a mistake all along! I just realized that the elder is really a pretty good guy! We can all stay home, where it's safe…"

But that, my friend, was a completely shallow and selfish wish.

My fingers gently pulled the lace curtains on my window back a peep, hoping to catch sight of Nick in the crowd. It was strange, considering the fact that I hadn't thought I had very many friends, there were at least fifty people I knew wandering around in Matthew's front yard, all ready to see me off. At least a fourth of them were crying hysterically over their "Sweet little girl". Which wasn't a very good encouragement for me, considering I was already scared silly about the war, and add to that that they were acting like I was going to have tea with death himself... I was terrified… absolutely TERRIFIED.

I dropped the curtain back and took a shuddering breath. Everything was still moving at high speed, making me have to pause and catch my breath from time to time.

I heaved my pack onto my shoulder and snatched up my intimidating leather armor. Then I walked through the kitchen to the back door.

My boots crunched on the dirt as I walked across the back yard, unnoticed by the mingling crowd up front.

When I reached the barn I quietly shoved the door open with my foot. I wasn't trying to sneak around or anything, but I wasn't ready to face anyone yet. I was sure that fear still lurked in my eyes, sticking out like a sore thumb, for everyone to witness and judge. I knew the nerves would wear off the closer I got to the actual fighting; Nick had informed me that adrenalin would replace the worry soon enough, but I didn't want to appear weak in the eyes of people who were depending on me.

When my eyes adjusted to the dark barn I cautiously approached the massive pitch black steed that Matthew had acquired for me. He had been tamed, but the horse's size always intimidated me when Matthew wasn't around to hold the reigns for me. Titus was the beast's name. He was actually a rather gentle horse when it came to me, but, I had witnessed him throw a man with triple the riding experience that I had. So my view on him had had a dark spot since the beginning.

"Hey, boy." I said gently, smoothly opening the gate and stepping in, not wanting to startle him in any way.

He whinnied softly in reply. I smiled to myself when I realized that he already had on a saddle, making my job so much easier. I gently tried lifting my bag over his high back, but after a few attempts, I wondered how Matthew and Nick managed to do it all the time. And usually they had heavier stuff than just a sack roll and some light armor.

I hissed in frustration when one of the straps holding all my armor together tugged free as I lifted, scattering leather and metal all around my feet. I cursed one of the lesser profanities I had picked up from hanging around Andrew, and ran a hand through my slightly tangled hair. Titus snorted as he watched me, and I threw a glare at him in anger. "Why do you have to be so difficult?" I asked him.

All he did was stare at me, as if to say, "I was standing perfectly still, you clumsy human."

I sighed, letting my anger fade away. Patting Titus' neck gently, "Are you scared, boy?" I whispered, leaning into his strong side while letting my arm wrap around his neck. He snorted again, deeply. I smiled sadly at him.

"You would go and tell a horse how scared you are, out of everyone that you could have come to." A deep voice suddenly spoke from behind me at the gate.

I whirled around, Nick stood there, leaning against the doorway.

"I… I wasn't sure where you were… So I couldn't have told you." Lamest excuse ever to come from my mouth.

He raised an eyebrow at me, doubting my words, and knowing full well that I could have found him if I wanted to. Then he pushed off the wall and bent to gather my things from the ground. He seemed upset, and his deliberate movements only made the worry gnawing at me intensify.

I watched him wrap the armor carefully back up, then he easily lifted it onto Titus' back and strapped it on. My eyes took in every single movement. During those whole minutes, not once did his face change from the impassive expression.

When he finished securing my bags, he turned to me suddenly. I blushed and averted my eyes to the wall as I realized he had caught me staring at him.

His hand was suddenly on my arm, "Rachel."

I slowly met his brown eyes with my own. Worry emanated from his frame. He bent his head to he could see my face better in the dark barn, "You do have a choice, you know." He whispered.

I sighed, now was not the time to tempt me with a way out. I backed away from him slowly. As I did his face clouded in confusion. I let myself back into a wall, and I just stood there, watching him. I was distancing myself from the possibility, but also making sure I was doing the right thing by fighting.

"I know you're worried. And I know how dangerous it is. I know I don't have nearly as many men as we would all like," The vision I had weeks ago turned out to be roughly correct in how many soldiers I had. It had somehow boiled down to seven hundred fifty-three men. It seemed a lot, but when the numbers were put up against the biggest city in the world, it didn't seem that the odds were very favorable. "But I absolutely do not have a choice. This is what I was born for. My whole life has been leading up to this. I will not quit on some petty bit of fear." I said it all in a quiet voice, without meeting Nick's eyes.

He took my hand and pulled me gently out of the stall, shutting it behind us.

He took me up to the back of the house and I sighed, "We should probably head on around to the front, everyone's waiting for us." I said, beginning to walk.

Nick didn't budge, and I was pulled back to him before I could get more than a few feet away. "Would you stand still for a moment?" He asked in an exasperated tone, "I have something to give you."

"What?" I asked, a smile coming onto my lips.

He looked towards the side of the house and whistled loudly, "Here, boy!" He called.

A black and brown dog came racing towards him from the front of the house, it pulled up just short of slamming into Nick's legs.

Nick knelt down and started rubbing behind the dog's ears. He looked up to me and smiled, "He's yours."

I gasped and knelt down beside him, "He's beautiful!" I said, letting him sniff the tips of my fingers before scratching his neck. It suddenly lurched towards me, knocking me into the dirt, and started licking my face. I laughed and pushed the over excited dog off. "What's his name?" I asked without looking away from the adorable pooch.

Nick rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I've been calling him dog… and boy." He said. "Before he got big I called him puppy."

I frowned, "Mean old Nick didn't give you a name, did he? You poor sweetie!" I said, burying my face in the dog's side while I talked gibberish to it.

Nick's deep laugh made me pull my face away and frown at him, "What?" I snapped, thinking he was making fun of me.

His smile was soft, "I'm really glad you like him." I melted at those words.

Throwing my arms around his neck, I whispered, "Thank you… It's the best present you could have given me."

When I pulled back his face was serious. "I got him a long time ago as a puppy for you. And I would have given you him then, but I wanted to train him first."

"Train?" I asked.

He absently stroked the dog's fur, "Matthew and I trained him for your protection in battle… He's able to kill. Not that you would know it just by looking at him. But if it comes down to it, and it will, he'll attack anybody meaning to harm you. Anyone who comes up against him won't have a chance."

"I can't imagine it." I said, even as he licked my face again. "He's so sweet."

"Just like you." He said, "I can't imagine you killing anyone…"

I winced, "I guess we have something in common then." I said, letting my forehead rest against the dog. "We should go on up I suppose."

Nick agreed and walked with me around to the front of house.

Everything went in a blur from then on. The rest of the morning was full of people saying meaningless words and hugging me while their tears fell onto my shirt.

The only time I caught a breath was when Matthew and Mrs. Jackson pulled me aside into the kitchen.

"I'm going to have to leave earlier than you… I'm stationed on the other side, so it will take my group longer to reach our destination than you, Nick, and Daniel. You three will be flanking me.

"Speaking of Daniel, when do I get to officially meet him? Surely he'll be around here before we leave?" I asked hopefully. Daniel Theomore was the man who I had seen speaking with Matthew that night almost a month ago. And he was also the son of The Elder. I couldn't help but show interest in him.

"Your groups will cross paths at least twice during the time of the siege. He's passing you at Fairina, and Port Frounth, and possibly he'll stay with you near the end until Nick and I catch up. But his army has already departed, so you won't be meeting him until you capture the city of Fairina." Matthew said, and I heard him, but I had listened to so much about the cities I would be capturing lately that I tuned him out once I got the information I wanted.

Mrs. Jackson was silent for the whole time, but once Matthew left she spoke to me. "I'm going to miss you all when you're gone… But you are the person I'll miss most." She said with a soft smile.

I laughed, "You'll miss me more than your own son?"

"It may seem wrong, but you're as close as a daughter to me as Nick is a son." She said. "I'm just waiting for the day that I can call you daughter."

A nervous giggle escaped from me. I hadn't even begun thinking about Nick proposing until she said that.

But once I thought about it I knew Nick had been thinking heavily in that area, and it upset me. "I think Nick is reluctant to broach that subject… I'm not sure why. It's like he thinks his social status isn't good enough for me. Which I don't understand. He's a prince too, right?" She nodded in reply, and I continued, "Why did Andrew also seem to think that he would be a better choice for me than Nick? Andrew isn't even royalty." I figured if anyone could tell me what was going on it would be Mrs. Jackson.

She smiled sadly, "Both of Andrew's parents are full blooded nobles. Whereas Nick was born a half blood. I was a servant to your mother… She was my best friend. Nick's father came across me before your parents even met. So the blueblood fell in love with the peasant. We didn't tell anyone that we got married. I didn't even tell your mother. Which, believe me, was the hardest thing I had ever done. But I knew if the Elders found out they would kill William for marrying a commoner, and a servant at that. So I kept my lips sealed for his sake." She suddenly laughed, "The problem with keeping secrets from your mother, she could read me like a book, and was a very curious young girl. But it didn't help that soon after I found out I was pregnant with Nick. It didn't take much for her to figure everything out. About a year and a half later your parents married. William and I by their sides every step of the way." She sighed at the bittersweet memory.

"I've never heard your story before…" My smile wobbled some, "I wish I had known him."

"Who dear? Your father?" She asked.

"Nick's father." I said, feeling that not knowing that man was a loss.

"He had a good heart." She said with a warm smile. "We've been standing here talking and you need to be leaving soon." She said, stepping forward and giving me a hug. "I might as well get my goodbyes in now, it won't be as meaningful in between one of those random people out there." She kissed me, "I know you'll be just fine." She said with a confident smile. "I'm very proud of you, and I'm certain your parents would be too if they were here."

"Thank-you." I hugged her back.

She smiled again. "You're welcome." Her voiced dropped to a whisper, "I'm sure he's just waiting for the right moment to ask you." She said, referring to Nick.

I smiled awkwardly, "I'm sure." I echoed.

When we stepped outside I saw that it was indeed time for me to leave. Titus was standing at the end of the pathway in the yard. And Nick, Andrew, and Jonathan were all already mounted on their horses, the dog standing faithfully by their side.

We would be meeting the rest of our army at the edge of town.

I stepped down from my place on the front porch steps, and everybody turned towards me. They came forwards one by one, hugging me and saying goodbye. When I finally worked my way to Titus I had become annoyed with all the people. Mrs. Jackson had been right, none of the words or hugs that anyone gave me was meaningful. I was just going through the motions.

"Ready?" Nick asked.

I nodded indifferently. "Let's go."

* * *

><p><strong>(AN)**

**Hello!**

** नमस्ते**

**I think... that this is my favorite chapter yet. **

**Hopefully you all like it, **

**Nothing much happened, but maybe some stuff was cleared up for you.**

**So, I'm looking through my stats, and there are a whole bunch of views on this story from people in India... I just wanna say, Hi.**

**Anyyway, Review please.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. **

**I love you... seriously.**

**_DaughterOfNoOne_**; **I do like that idea, but I can't make a ****sequel, do to some things that I can't tell you yet because it would ruin the story for you and everyone else. :D**

**_Pokemonchen_; Lol, Yeah... I hate that guy. He's not gonna be in any further chapters... He's too dumb for me. :/ And don't worry, they're both dead... apparently they both slipped on some ice and hit their heads... yeah ice... in July... :D nobody saw anything. ;)**

**_Guest_; ****Smiley, I assume? Anyway. Yeah, insane people... And I'm glad you think Nick and Rachel go good together. I think their freaking adorable if I do say so myself. :)**

**Booksnake; You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you like this. THANK-YOU! XD**

**Who liked all the animals in this chap?**

**Anyone who wants to can input on what the dog's name should be. ****It's a mix between a German shepherd and a D**oberman, ****

**so it's a pretty big dog. And **I'm coming up short on names.****

**Review. :D**

**P.S. Check out my stories on Fictionpress ~ **TheClassicCriminal | FictionPress


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